That Which Lies Within
by JanSuch
Summary: Continuation of Pregnancy stories. Nikola has a new problem- he's infected with an electrical creature that is urging him toward violence. I don't own Sanctuary or the characters, nor am I making any profit from this.
1. Chapter 1

Nikola tapped his foot impatiently. He was late for Helen's staff meeting and he knew it, but he had to finish feeding the electrical being inside him.

He was in the basement of the Sanctuary with his hand on an electrical conduit, bleeding off power very slowly; he didn't want to dim the lights. At first he'd only had to feed the creature once a day and it had been easy. Now it seemed twice daily wasn't sufficient.

Finally the creature was sated and he hurried upstairs, racing through halls when they were empty and just walking quickly when anyone else was around. Outside her office he settled his jacket, smoothed his hair, and sauntered in.

He wasn't very late, Helen was saying ". . . and item two . . . Nikola, I would appreciate it if you would make an effort to be on time_." You should set a better example for the young people._

Nikola understood her unspoken comment and just nodded and sat down. He did try, at least sometimes, but old habits were hard to break and frankly he already knew most of what was on her agenda- he lived with her, after all.

Helen made no effort to recap whatever item one had been, so either it didn't concern him or he already knew about it. She went on "Item two: there has been a murder of one of our team in Mumbai under unusual circumstances. We'll need an investigative team on site as soon as possible. Nikola . . ."

"No."

"What do you mean, 'no'? I haven't said anything yet."

"I'm not going to Mumbai." _I can't go anywhere where I don't have a constant ready source of electricity._

"I need a team lead who can handle something dangerous and you . . ."

"No. I've led all sorts of missions during your pregnancy and that's not what you hired me for. I haven't had any decent amount of time in my lab for months."

Helen just sat and contemplated the father of her son for a few moments. There was something going on, and it wasn't a longing for his laboratory, of that she was sure. He'd been acting a bit odd lately, but she'd initially put it down to him being a new father. But until she could figure out what was going on in Nikola's convoluted brain, perhaps it was better to keep him where she could keep an eye on him.

"Very well. Will? Do you think you could handle it?"

Dr. Will Zimmerman sat forward and said "I'd definitely like to give it a try. It would be a refreshing change to actually go on a mission without Nikola Tesla."

Helen sighed. When she was pregnant and couldn't lead missions herself she'd had Nikola go instead. Being both brilliant and nearly indestructible she thought he was the perfect choice as a substitute, but perhaps she'd overdone it a little.

She just nodded and then said "I know things have been a little off kilter during my pregnancy and they're still going to be for a while until everything gets entirely back to normal. Everyone has had to take on different duties at times, and I do appreciate the way you have all stepped up. Will, I'll forward you all the information I have and you can choose your own team."

Will gave her a little bow from his chair in appreciation and she went on to the next item. Nikola turned most of his attention away from the meeting and studied the creature inside him while pretending to study his fingernails.

It had been fairly weak when it first invaded him, and it had even fed him energy to help him get out of a collapsed mine. But it demanded energy too, and when it didn't get enough it became angry and incited him to anger and violence. It did its best to put violent excitement in his mind because in that state his own electrical production increased and it got a better feed.

Nikola was fairly sure that if the creature wasn't exactly the same as the one that resided in John Druitt it was at least a close cousin. He was determined to expel it or destroy it somehow, he just hadn't quite figure out how to do that. He'd tried using his own electricity to rid himself of it somehow, but that had failed. So instead he fed it, keeping it sated so it didn't try to control him.

But the more he fed it, the stronger it got. Well, he'd expected that, but he initially thought it would just be for a few days but now he'd been carrying it for two weeks and he still didn't have an acceptable answer.

The interminable meeting finally came to an end without any duties or chores being assigned to him; most satisfactory. He headed toward the Foss' apartment. He and Erica traded baby-sitting chores watching his son Danny and her daughter Angelina during the day when Helen needed time to work. Nikola picked up his son and went back to their apartment.

He kicked off his shoes and reclined on a couch with his tiny son, cuddling him. Nikola took out his phone and took a picture of them. He'd never been very interested in taking selfies before Danny was born, but in two weeks he had taken about 200 pictures of the two of them.

He wanted to capture and keep every moment; with the creature inside of him, he wasn't sure how much time he was going to get as a family man, and if he had to disappear from Danny's life, well, there would be proof that he'd cared. At least his son would have pictures of himself with his father, even if that father wasn't around to see him grow up.

Danny drifted off to sleep in his father's arms. Nikola closed his eyes, but he didn't sleep. He spent every available minute trying to think of a way to get rid of the creature inside him before it turned him into a murdering monster like John.

The one thing that would absolutely work would be to die; no electricity in the host, the parasite would leave. If done in the presence of an electrical source that could be permanently isolated, the creature would be trapped and possibly destroyed somehow. There was, however, the obvious downside to that plan.

Plan A was to entice it out by offering a bigger supply of electricity without allowing it to run wild through the electrical grid or infect computers or other people. The only place Nikola could think of with a huge isolated supply of electrical energy was Bhalasaam. But if going into that tunnel again actually got the creature out of him then the underground of the vampire's last city would have to be destroyed utterly so no one could ever give the creature another host.

He didn't like the idea. So little remained of the great civilization his ancestors had built, the thought of destroying what remained of that beautiful ruin was repugnant. Oh, there were other vampires in existence, but they weren't creating much except a few practical things and most of those were from his designs. Once Bhalasaam was gone there would never be another place like it.

There had to be another way, but he just hadn't discovered it yet. How much time did he have? He mentally recalculated the creature's growth rate from this morning's feed. Not long, perhaps another ten days, and the last few would be very difficult. He didn't dare cut it close; if he miscalculated and the creature overcame him he might kill his friends and his family and he couldn't, he wouldn't risk that.

He took his sleeping son to Helen- it was almost time for a feeding anyway. She had a crib behind her desk and enjoyed having her son near her while she worked. She was on the phone when he went in and he just deposited Danny in the crib at her nod. Nikola had work to do, and a lab was no place for Danny, at least not yet.

Late in the afternoon Helen took Danny back to Erica to watch for a little while and went looking for Nikola. It was time to make him confess to whatever he was doing. But she was shocked when she found him in his lab working with explosives.

"Nikola, what is this for?" she asked, indicating the half-filled small box of carefully packed nitroglycerin.

"Just a little project of mine; I'm going to do some exploration for usable ores."

Helen immediately knew it was a lie; he was looking straight at her and trying to convince her it was the truth.

"You would use dynamite for that, it's far more stable. You could bring down the entire Sanctuary cavern with this."

"I'm not going to blow up the Sanctuary, or anywhere that's populated, believe me."

She almost did believe him. He really didn't want to hurt anyone, but sometimes he misjudged the effect his actions had on his surroundings.

Time to throw him a curve ball. "When I was looking for you I found your phone in the apartment. You've taken so many pictures of you and Danny, but there are hardly any of the three of us. Why is that?"

"Well you're not usually available during the day."

"Nikola . . . please stop avoiding the issue."

"What issue?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out. You've been behaving oddly since Danny was born and at first I put it down to being a new father after all those years. But it's more than that; tell me."

Nikola let out a long sigh. He hadn't wanted to say anything this soon, in fact he had been considering leaving her a note. But apparently he was going to have to tell her. "I . . . I have a little problem."

"That can be solved with nitro?"

"Hopefully. I didn't want to involve you or anyone else. It's my problem, let me fix it."

Helen moved in close to him. "Nikola, you are my . . . my mate. If you have a problem, then I have a problem. Don't shut me out, let me help, please."

Nikola ran a hand through his hair and began to pace. "All right, all right if you must. You know that creature in the mine that we took care of? The ending to that story is a little different than I led you to believe."

"You lied to me?"

"Not exactly, I just let you make a bad assumption."

"The creature is still there and you're going back to blow up the rest of the mine?"

"No, the mine is safe . . . because the creature is, well it's . . ."

"Stop stalling."

"I didn't want you to know. The father of your first child was a murdering monster because of an energy being inside of him. Well, it turns out the father of your second child has the same problem, although I haven't killed anyone yet."

"WHAT?"

"It's inside of me. I'm managing it for now by giving it electricity, but it's growing and I can't manage it forever."

"How long?"

"A few days, maybe a week or a little longer."

"So you're going to blow yourself up?"

"Well I hope not. I'm going to Bhalasaam, back to that little test your father set up for me and try to either give the creature more electricity than it can handle or see if it will abandon me and take up residence."

"If it does you can blow up the area and bury it. But why not use something safer like plastic explosives or dynamite?"

"Because with that much electricity a radio signal wouldn't penetrate to set the explosives off. I've considered dynamite with an old-fashioned fuse, but I'm not sure it would stay lit and I am trying to give myself some room to get out. Nitro- well I can set it in various places and toss one or two vials and it will all go up."

"We don't have to blow the tunnel directly. We can bring down everything around it and that will have the same effect. Keep in mind there is an entire city above those tunnels, caving them in should be sufficient."

"Maybe you're right, but there's no 'we' involved here. I won't make my son an orphan Helen. You know I can survive a lot more than you can."

"Nikola, you're not doing this alone."

"Well I'm not doing it today in any case. First I'll have to strip out all the wiring and remove any other source of power besides that tunnel. It's connected directly to the earth's magnetic field and all the other wiring is separate."

"Well we can both do that."

"I have to find the power source and shut the whole thing down and frankly I can do that more quickly by myself than if I have to worry about you."

"All right. But you swear to me that that is all you are going to do and that you are coming back here tonight."

"I swear I'll be right back."

"And you're only going to pull the wiring and any other sources of electricity."

"Yes, I promise."

She let him go then; he was being honest with her and she knew she could trust him when he gave his word for something important. Helen retrieved Danny from Erica and took him home. It was nearly time to feed him again anyway and she wanted to hold him.

What if she lost Nikola to the creature the way she'd lost John, and Danny was all she had left of the man she loved? She'd been that route before and she really didn't think she was strong enough to do it again. Not after raising Ashley by herself and then losing her. She simply could not let the creature win; there had to be a way to get rid of it.

Helen waited with her son for Nikola to come back. The hours passed slowly, mostly because she kept checking the time. Surely it wouldn't take him this long just to remove a power source and rip out some wiring? Well it might, her father was very thorough and would have put in backups. But it was Nikola Tesla who was doing the job; electricity was his area of expertise, surely . . . She realized she was going around in circles and distracted herself reviewing educational software for preschoolers.

Danny was long put down for the night when the apartment door opened and Nikola finally came in.

"There you are at last. What took so long?"

"Uh, well, I sort of forgot to take a flashlight so after I eliminated the power sources- three of them mind you- I was in the dark, had to juice a bulb so I only had one hand to work with on the wiring."

"Well I'm glad you're finally home. Danny's already asleep for the night, don't you dare wake him."

Nikola just shook his head and went into his son's room. Helen trailed after him. Nikola could sit by his son's bed for hours and it was far too early for the vampire to be tired in spite of all he had done that day. She let him check on Danny but then took him by the hand and led him to the bedroom they shared. She had thought she would have Nikola for years, decades, even centuries, and now it might only be days. But tonight he was hers.


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning Helen consulted with Henry. Even though she and Nikola both had experience with explosives, it had been decades since either had used them.

"Oh yeah" Henry said "I can come up with C4 or anything you want. What are you going to blow up?"

"The underground portion of an empty ruined city- Bhalasaam to be exact."

"I can rig it so it can be triggered from a distance."

"Remote control may not work."

"Then I can wire it and use an old-fashioned detonator; just need a lot of wire."

"How much power does it use?"

"Minimal, battery operated."

"That should work then. Get what you need; we'll be leaving in an hour."

"Uh, I kind of need to know the parameters, you know- how big is the area, how many structural supports, what kind of materials . . ."

"Ask Nikola, he can give you the particulars."

"Right."

It was actually more like two hours before they were ready to leave. They all had hard hats with head lamps and both Henry and Nikola carried boxes. Part of the delay was due to Henry gathering the equipment, but part was Nikola's fault. After giving Henry the information he needed the vampire spent the rest of the time with his son and seemed reluctant to leave. Helen had finally found it necessary to take Danny to Erica right in the middle of Nikola's fourth lullaby.

So when they went through the gates Nikola was already grumpy as well as dragging his feet. They arrived with their lights on and Helen led the way to the tunnel where Nikola's test had been. They worked smoothly as a team, Nikola being uncharacteristically quiet and useful.

The charges were set in the area surrounding the tunnel to bring down the roof, but not in or directly adjacent to the tunnel itself. Nikola was afraid of having any wiring very close in case the electrical creature was able to jump to it at the last second.

When everything was ready Henry was sent out of the caverns with the spool of wire and the detonator to finish hooking it up. Helen and Nikola stood before the tunnel, but the vampire showed no inclination to go in.

"Nikola? Are you ready?" Helen asked.

"Yeah, sort of. But you need to be out of here first."

"I'm not leaving without you; we'll go together. Henry won't do anything until we're both out. Tell me the plan. What are you going to do?"

"All right just don't stand too close so it can't jump to you. I'll go in half way and see what happens. If it leaves me immediately I'll come out and wolf boy can blow the place. If it doesn't . . ."

"It will."

"I'm not so sure. The voltage in there is extreme and it might not like it. If it doesn't leave me I'll stay in as long as I can and try to convince it."

"How long can you survive in there?"

"I have no idea. Wish me luck."

She grabbed him and kissed him, whispering "Good luck" when they parted. Nikola settled his jacket, paced in a quick circle, vamped and then dove into the tunnel.

The electrical energy sprang to life when he entered. Helen could see him fighting his way through step by step until he was half way down. He stopped and turned back toward her and for a moment she thought he was going to come back.

Instead Nikola stood with his arms out, letting the massive electrical energy play over his body, his face contorted in pain. Helen waited, but he didn't move.

"Nikola! Come out!"

The vampire slowly sank to his knees, and she could see smoke roiling off of him.

"Nikola, get out of there!" Helen watched, horrified, but there was nothing she could do. Then he managed to stagger to his feet, but moving forward almost seemed to be too much for him. Finally he took a step, and then another, leaning into the current that was almost lifting him off his feet.

A few feet from the end she saw tongues of flame on him and quickly took off her jacket. He made it out bringing the odor of burnt hair, clothing, and flesh with him, and collapsed on the floor. Helen used her coat to quickly smother the fire.

He groaned under her wrap and she lifted it to see how badly hurt he was. His clothing was still smoking, but the flames were out and she only saw the end of the healing process as his burns disappeared.

"Nikola, can you hear me? The creature . . . is it . . ."

Nikola opened his eyes and shook his head. It hadn't worked. She helped him slowly climb to his feet and he devamped.

"It just hunkered down inside me and fed off what was seeping through. It was afraid of all that power, I think it felt it would become disassociated in that much energy . . . probably right."

"Do you want to try again?" Helen asked doubtfully.

"God no. Tell Henry to disconnect and I'll start pulling the wiring from here."

If that had been Plan A, Helen wasn't ready to hear about Plan B. She went to tell Henry they weren't going to blow up Bhalasaam. In less than an hour the three of them trooped back through the halls with Nikola and Henry carrying the equipment and went through the gate into the Sanctuary.

Once through the gate Nikola loaded what he had been carrying on top of Henry's load, said "Thanks" and walked off with Helen. Henry staggered a bit under the load and went off muttering "Oh sure, dump it all on the HAP. Well at least fang boy is getting politer."

But Nikola soon veered to the wine cellar and picked out a particularly fine vintage, saying "I think I deserve this." Helen could only nod her agreement.

Back in their apartment he changed into clothing that hadn't been burned while Helen went and reclaimed Danny from Erica, and Angelina as well to give Erica a break. When she returned with the children Nikola had settled on the sofa with the open bottle of wine and was sipping appreciatively.

Helen fed Danny while Nikola played with Angela. She was talking now and called him "Unca Nikwa" while she crawled around on the sofa next to him, playing with a doll. He drank with one hand and played with the other. When Danny had been fed and burped, Helen settled in a nearby chair with her son.

She asked "Do you have any other ideas how to rid yourself of the creature?"

"Just one, and you're not going to like it. Actually, I don't like it either."

"Tell me."

"Set a trap for it. Offer it a separate electrical source encased in nonconductive material, rubber maybe."

"That doesn't sound so bad. What's the catch?"

"To get it to leave me and enter the trap, I have to have no electrical flows within my body."

"But that's not possible, you'd be . . ."

"Dead; hopefully just a temporary condition."

"You can stop your breathing and your heart."

"Yeah, but the brain part is a bit trickier."

Helen was silent, thinking. Then she said "When we went into the computer after Adam Worth, we were brain dead for a short while here after we were knocked unconscious there."

Nikola considered that. "So upload me into the computer, and then knock me out? Worth used some kind of electrical surge, I'm not sure I could do it to myself."

"Probably not, which means I'll need to go in with you."

"It would take a lot of prep; there would need to be a charge running through me to keep the thing in place while my consciousness was being transferred, and then my body would have to be isolated from everything but the trap. My mind would be totally disconnected from my body and dependent on the computer for survival. I'm not sure what that would do to me, but I suppose it would be better than being actually dead. Do you know how to create an electrical surge in the computer to knock me out?"

"Without Adam's interference I was able to control the computer environment pretty well to capture and isolate the nanite so I'm sure I can manage."

Nikola tapped a finger against his wine glass nervously. "Okay" he finally said. "Just don't leave me in there too long. I'll talk to Henry about a container, some sort of rubber coffin or something with a detachable compartment for the trap. Or would you prefer glass? We could do a reverse Sleeping Beauty, and you could wake me with a kiss when it's all over.

Helen shook her head. "No dwarves and please don't call it a coffin."

"Henry is pretty short . . ."

"But there's only one of him. However, I will consider the kiss part."

Nikola downed his wine and stood up. "Then I will leave you with the kids and get Henry working on an isolation chamber of some sort."

Over the next few days Helen saw the "isolation chamber" taking shape in Nikola's lab. It did look alarmingly like a coffin, black on the bottom with clear plexiluminum for the top. Nikola explained it was impermeable but it could be important to have a visual on the creature leaving his body, assuming it did. On the top was something that looked like a large cubical black wart- the trap.

Nikola checked on the progress too, but spent most of his time on the computer setting up space for his consciousness. This would be different from when he and Helen had entered the virtual world previously. They had been attached to their bodies the entire time and hadn't needed to drag their entire memories along, but soon he would need to fully upload his mind.

He was feeding the creature inside him four times a day, every six hours around the clock. Helen could see the strain was telling on him, his dress was becoming sloppy and some days he didn't even shave. But he found time to be with her and Danny every evening, and he kept taking selfies of him and Danny and the three of them daily.

One evening four days later he announced everything was ready. Helen placed Danny in his arms and they sat together on the sofa.

"We'll do it from my lab in the morning" Nikola said.

"Do you really want to talk about it now?"

"Yes, if you don't mind. I want to run it past you to examine for flaws; sometimes you see things differently than I do."

"All right Nikola."

"I get in the chamber and the electrical energy from the trap is started and encases most of me. You and I hook up to the computer and go in- no, wait I need to shut down my physical processes first. Then we go in and I completely upload and then you knock me out so I flatline in the real world; then you go out."

"Why do you need to completely upload your mind? We didn't last time; we just moved our consciousness into the computer."

"I'm not entirely sure I do need to, but last time our bodies were alive and we remained connected to them. My body will for all intents and purposes be dead, and I'll be disconnected from it. Without conscious direction, I don't know what condition my body and brain will be in by the time the creature leaves. What if it takes a long time and my body is no longer habitable?"

"Nikola . . ."

"I know, I don't like thinking about that either, but it's a possibility we have to face. If I have my full mind in the computer, at least I would have some sort of existence and you could come visit me."

"I don't like it, but I suppose it's a sensible precaution. How long will uploading you take?"

"Not sure, there's a lot in here you know" he said, tapping his temple. "I'm estimating forty to sixty minutes; we'll be going at extremely high speeds."

"Are you sure the creature won't follow you?"

"Not entirely, but I doubt it will. It will still be getting a nice feed while my head will be duplicating, and once I flatline it will have no interest in that part of my anatomy. As soon as I'm in, you can disconnect me from the computer and close the upper portion of the unit so my body is completely isolated."

"Nikola, how long can you stay like that without taking damage?"

"I don't know exactly, I've never done this before. But my body should revive just fine as long as it's no more than a couple of hours; not sure about the condition of my brain though without me in it."

"And how will the creature be lured into the trap?"

"Once I'm isolated Henry throws a switch and all the lovely electricity stops except for the generation point in the box. You should be able to see the creature leave me and go in, and when that happens the box will automatically close and seal itself."

"And then we can open the isolation chamber and get you on life support."

"Right, get my body going and come back into the computer and get me."

"Just hooking you up again won't be enough?"

"Honestly, I don't know. It might be, Henry should be able to monitor the connection and if I start reloading into my head then you won't have to. But if not . . ."

"I'll come back in and get you."

"And kiss me awake?"

Helen smiled "Certainly. Why do you have to transfer everything back into your brain, since it's a duplicate anyway?"

"I don't, but it's cleaner that way. If we put everything back then all of me will be extracted from the computer. If I leave anything behind, well, I won't be in control of it and frankly I'm smarter than Adam Worth. I really don't know what would happen."

They sat in silence for a while. Nikola finally said "I don't like it either Helen, there are too many steps where something could go wrong, but it's the only chance I have of being able to stay here with my family."

"Let's put Danny to bed now; he's asleep anyway and I want to hold you all night tonight, Nikola."

"Okay, but I'll have to get up and go feed the thing in three hours."

"After tomorrow you won't have to deal with it anymore."

"I pray you're right."


	3. Chapter 3

In the morning Helen dropped Danny off at the Foss residence and headed to Nikola's lab. When she arrived she could see everything was ready for Plan B.

The isolation chamber sat looking more and more like a glass-topped coffin now that it was padded and a small pillow added. Henry was doing last minute checks and Big Guy was there with the crash cart; they would need it to restart Nikola's body. The brain-to-computer connectors called Halo Devices were glowing blue and ready to use. But where was Nikola?

He came in then dressed in a way she had never seen before carrying his normal suit, shirt, vest and tie on a hanger and shoes as well. He was wearing just a plain white tee shirt, navy sweat pants, black socks and slippers. He hung up the suit and set down the shoes and turned to find her staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

Helen just gestured at his weird get-up.

"You're going to need easy access after I vacate and you can remove these pretty easily and any way you want since I don't care if I ever see anything I'm wearing again- except maybe the socks, I really like these socks."

Helen nodded. "Makes sense. Are you ready?"

"Heinrich, are we a go?"

"Everything checks out" the HAP answered. "I just want it to go on record that I think this is totally nuts."

Nikola said condescendingly "I'm sure your technical skills are up to creating a couple of non-conductive boxes."

"My technical skills? My technical skills are excellent and everything works exactly as you specified!" Henry replied heatedly.

Mildly Nikola replied "Well then, there's nothing to worry about, is there?"

Henry said "I'm not worried. Okay maybe I'm a little worried, I remember what happened last time you guys sort of did this and it was not fun."

The vampire stepped out of his slippers and climbed into the isolation chamber, lying down and settling himself. Henry closed the lower section of the lid, leaving just Nikola's head and shoulders uncovered. The pillow kept his head propped up so there would be no interference with the Halo Device.

"Turn it on and let's get Mr. Sparky distracted" said Nikola.

Henry pushed a button on a small remote control and Helen could see the black box on top of the isolation chamber begin to spit out small arcs of electricity.

"Hook me up, Helen, and I'll shut down" was Nikola's next instruction. Helen placed the Halo Device on his head with the glowing blue ends at his temples. They wouldn't need the physical sensor that would track his heartbeat since he soon wouldn't have one. The screen set up to show his vitals displayed his mental activity only.

"Later, Princess Charming" Nikola said. He adjusted his position a little so he was lying straight, his hands loose on his abdomen. Then he closed his eyes, and went still; the rise and fall of his chest stopped. They all watched through the plexiliminum for a few seconds to make sure Nikola's body functions had totally ceased.

Helen took charge. "Start the transfer, Henry." He did, but there wasn't anything different to see. Helen sat down in a chair provided for her and clipped the physical monitor to her finger; the screen behind her began beeping and displaying data. She picked up her own Halo Device and adjusted it on her temples.

"He won't be fully loaded for quite a while" Henry said as she went in; she already knew that, but she could be with Nikola while they waited.

Inside the computer, she arrived at apparently the same location as she had been in the real world but neither Henry nor Big Guy were there. She unclipped the monitor and removed the transfer device, stood and walked over to the isolation unit but she could see it was open and empty. Nikola had gone into the computer ahead of her, but where was he?

Helen headed toward the door to the hallway when he came in. He was dressed in the suit he had brought to the real lab and looked pleased.

He said "I just had to double check and make sure there aren't any remnants of Adam Worth hanging around."

"And?"

"Nada, clean and green. Care for a stroll?"

"Fine, anywhere in particular?"

"Wherever you like. This is going to be my playground for a while so just state your pleasure- Vienna in springtime, London in the fall, the old Sanctuary, the new Sanctuary?"

"We don't have enough time for all that I'm afraid. But we could share a bottle of '98 Moulin Rothschild in our apartment if you'd like."

Nikola perked up and asked "1898 or 1998?"

"Take your pick"

"Definitely 1898; excellent idea." They walked through the door and instead of the hall they were in their apartment with the wine waiting for them.

"How very efficient Nikola. I'm impressed." He just grinned and poured the wine and they settled into chairs. Helen sipped and Nikola inhaled the wine's bouquet and then sipped, his eyes closing in appreciation at the flavor.

"Ah, exquisite. I really think I'm going to enjoy my sojourn here Helen. But don't forget to call me when it's time to come home."

"I will, I promise." They sat for a while, both of them having a second glass of wine; caviar, crackers, cheeses and petit fours appeared with a wave of Nikola's hand. "Why not? No calories and I can eat whatever I like in a virtual environment."

It was Helen's turn to grin as she helped herself. They enjoyed their treats, but then Nikola stiffened. "Something's not right."

Helen looked at him questioningly. Nikola put down his food, stood up and faced the apartment door. It rattled in its frame. Alarmed, Helen stood too.

"What in the world?" she asked. Nikola vamped and a black blotch appeared in the center of the door that grew. Half the door was enveloped then a golden, glowing, _sizzling_ semi-human form rushed through out of the blackness, going straight for the vampire who leaped forward and grappled with it.

Helen realized all at once that this must be the energy creature, trying to follow Nikola into the computer. But in a virtual world she was armed any way she chose; a rubber-handled sword appeared in her hand and she swung at it overhand, avoiding Nikola.

To her surprise she connected with a solid thump and the creature recoiled. Nikola was panting heavily, but seeing the weapon in her hand produced a mace of his own and went after the being in front of them. The heavy spiked implement connected twice in a shower of sparks and the creature fled back into the black hole which gradually disappeared and became the door again.

They looked at each other and Nikola said "Well that was odd."

"Indeed" Helen responded, her sword disappearing. "I only expected to distract it, but it felt solid when I connected."

Nikola's mace disappeared as well. "Maybe in an electromagnetic environment electricity can be solid?"

Helen just looked at him doubtfully.

Nikola shrugged and said "Well anyway, I'm done."

"Fully loaded?"

"Yeah, time for you to do your thing."

Helen gathered herself. Nikola sat down and finished his wine, keeping her waiting.

When he finally put down the glass she asked "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be. Then get me unhooked tout de suite and close up the isolation unit."

"I'll be back soon, Nikola." Helen concentrated, there was a burst of energy and Nikola collapsed. Helen just took one long look and then went out the apartment door and into the lab. She sat back down and reattached the finger monitor and Halo Device, and opened her eyes in the real world.

She unhooked herself and went over and removed Nikola's Device; his monitor showed he was mentally flatlined. Helen closed the upper portion of the isolation chamber; it closed with a snick, and Nikola was entirely encased.

Helen backed up to stand next to Henry as he used his remote to apparently turn off the arcing power inside the chamber. "It's still on" he said, "Just at a really low level so if the creature wants it it has to go into the box."

They waited. Then a glow appeared out of Nikola's torso. It resolved into a mass of electrical energy that tried to go through the plexiluminum, but was thwarted. It swirled around angrily, battering at the walls of the isolation chamber. Finally it buzzed up toward the top of the chamber and found the trap. Part of it entered, but part remained outside the black box.

Henry adjusted the amount of power being generated downward again, but the creature came entirely out of the box and went back into Nikola. They waited anxiously for nearly ten minutes before it reappeared. It crackled along the sides of the chamber, apparently still searching for a way out. It went all the way around twice, then along the top.

Once again it found the low level electrical source in the black box and fastened to it, but only partially for a few seconds. It came out again and hovered in the center of the chamber, electrical tendrils reaching out in various directions.

It went back down into Nikola and his body shuddered. It slowly made his body sit up and his arms lifted and rapped in a weak, uncoordinated way against the plexiluminum, his eyes still closed.

Henry said "Whoa, zombie vampire; this is really, really bad."

Helen watched horrified as the creature continued to animate Nikola's body and try to use it. But after a couple of minutes of poorly controlled movement, the body flopped down again. It jerked twice and then appeared to go into a full seizure.

"Henry, do something!" Helen demanded.

Henry muttered something then said "There's not much I can do, but I can sweeten the pot." He turned up the gain on the power generation and got the creature's attention again with the burst of crackling electricity. It rose out of Nikola and his body calmed and lay still, flopped awkwardly in the chamber. Part of the creature again entered the box. When it seemed fully engaged, Henry gradually lessened the power and the creature moved farther and farther into the trap. Finally it was completely inside and the box snapped shut.

Helen said "Yes, at last" and moved toward the chamber while Big Guy started rolling the crash cart over. But Henry beat them both to the isolation unit and said "Hold it! Everybody cool it until I get this thing secured."

He carefully detached the black box and carried it gingerly to another, slightly larger shiny silver box sitting on a bench. He lowered it in, and used his remote to turn off the power to the trap. Then he closed and locked the outer box.

But Helen and Big Guy weren't watching. As soon as Henry moved away from Nikola they converged on the isolation chamber and got it fully open. Biggie tore open the vampire's tee shirt and Helen turned the defibrillator up to its highest setting; there was no danger of giving Nikola Tesla too much electricity.

She said "Clear!" and placed the paddles on the front and side of his chest. Nikola's body jumped, but dropped back without any effect. She repeated the process and suddenly the vampire's body took a breath, then another.

Helen quickly attached the monitor and Nikola's display screen showed a steady heartbeat. But his eyes didn't open and his electroencephalogram still showed no activity. She reattached the Halo Device to his temples and turned to Henry, who had finished with the box and had turned to the computer.

"Henry?" was all she needed to say. He was monitoring the computer's activity but just shook his head. "No transfer yet."

"All right, then I'll go get him" Helen stated. She seated herself back in her chair and reattached the monitor and Device.

She was in the lab, alone. She detached herself from the equipment and headed for the door. Perhaps Nikola was waiting for her in their apartment; he might even be still drinking wine, although after nearly two hours he was probably on a different variety by now.

Helen walked through the door and stopped in surprise. She wasn't in her apartment, she was in darkness. She turned to go back into the lab, but the lab was gone as well. She turned around again and called out "Nikola?"

A square meter of light appeared on the floor in front of her. The odd thing was there didn't seem to be any source. Once again she called out to her mate, but still received no answer. Then five more squares of light appeared in a row with the first one leading away from her. Somehow they looked familiar.

Then she realized that what she was seeing was the same pattern as the light coming through a row of six windows in the residence hallway in the Sanctuary. But here there wasn't a wall nor was the light coming from anywhere. And the silvery color of this light looked like moonlight, whereas the light at the Sanctuary was security night lighting and more yellowish.

A shadow zipped out of the dark, darted across the far square, and back into blackness, going too quickly for her to be able to identify it. The hair rose on the back of Helen's neck; that had been very much like the first time she and Nikola had gone into the computer and encountered Adam Worth. She suddenly doubted that Nikola had had time to really search the entire computer when he had declared that Worth was totally gone.

But it didn't have to be Worth. Quietly Helen called "Nikola?" hoping if he was there he would hear her. There was no response. Something was definitely wrong.

Helen wished she wasn't alone; she'd been so focused on Nikola she'd ignored basic safety precautions for herself. She tried to bring the lab back into being around her, but nothing happened; she wasn't in control of this environment.

_Well if I can't go back then I'll go forward_ she thought. She stepped boldly into the first square of light and called loudly "Nikola Tesla!"

The response was immediate, but not at all what she expected.

A/N: Thank you epichlexi, JBB, and Lorienleaf for the reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

Helen was momentarily stunned by sudden brilliant light and color. There was blue sky, and long green grass and wildflowers scented the warm air. A gentle breeze momentarily lifted her hair and it all seemed absolutely real.

She was on a dirt path that gently sloped down to a town- no, a village. She could see a man driving a horse-drawn wagon, a woman in a long dress down in the cluster of buildings, and a gaggle of children far down the path in front of her.

Suddenly a woman's voice from behind her said something in a foreign language, but even though the words were strange she understood them; the woman told her to stop dawdling. She turned and flashed the woman a grin- her viewpoint was about at the woman's waist. Then Helen began to run down the path toward the children. She noticed she wasn't wearing skirts and ran easily in trousers.

When she reached the other children they included her in their chatter; a group of girls and one older boy. Then the scene faded to an amorphous gray. Helen understood that she'd been in one of Nikola's early memories from his childhood; just a few seconds with his mother and siblings, but it had been as if she was really there. How much more real would it seem to Nikola?

That frightened her a little. Nikola had an exceptional memory and there was nearly 160 years of it in the computer. How would she feel if she were suddenly given the opportunity to spend time again with her mother, or a youthful James, or dozens of people she had outlived? What if she could relive the early days with John, before the Source blood? Perhaps that was why Nikola wasn't responding to her; he was lost in his memories, being with family and friends, old lovers perhaps, even savoring his triumphs or a steak at the Palm Room of the Waldorf-Astoria. If so, how would she ever find him, and even if she did would he want to leave?

Perhaps he didn't even realize he was wandering around in his memories. He might think the scenes were real, and he was having a mental problem of some sort- it wouldn't be his first. In his early life his brilliance had occasionally teetered on the edge of madness and he'd had more than one breakdown.

Without any sort of idea where Nikola might be, it was hopeless trying to find him from within the computer. Maybe Henry could help, but first she had to get out so she could explain the problem to him.

But she was given no more time to contemplate her options. She took a step forward to look for the lab and the grayness resolved itself into a city street. The day was overcast and she was walking along carrying two heavy objects- a large suitcase and a heavy grip. What did Nikola have in there, rocks?

Helen was pretty sure it was Oxford. She paused outside a large house and looked at a "Room to Let" sign in the window, and turned up the walkway to the house and used the knocker.

A small pinch-faced woman came to the door in a long print dress and a spotless apron. "Yes?" was all she said.

Nikola replied "I saw the sign and I am looking for a room. How much is it please?" His English was still heavily accented which placed the memory in time for Helen.

The woman looked him up and down carefully. "You a furriner? Where're you from?"

"Most recently Prague, originally Croatia; I am Serbian."

The woman gave him a blank look; perhaps she was unfamiliar with central Europe. "You're a gentleman? I don't allow no smokin', drinkin', or carousin'. I run a quiet clean place." She looked at him suspiciously as if he was about to do something objectionably "furrin" right there on her front step.

"I assure you I am a quiet man of clean habits. My name is Nikola Tesla and I will be a student at your great university; much of my time will be spent in reading and studying."

"Well, I'll show you the room then." She named a price that Nikola knew was high. This was the fourth place he'd tried; the availability of the other rooms had evaporated when he'd opened his mouth and his foreign origins had been revealed. He would have to work on eliminating his accent, but so far he'd heard so many different English accents he wasn't quite sure where to start.

But the room was decent, very clean with old heavy furniture that was still quite serviceable. The rug was worn but there was a window that looked out on the back garden, a single bed that looked long enough for him, a wardrobe and a desk and chair. It would do.

The woman said "I have someone else interested too, an English fella goin' to the school as well."

Nikola said "Then I will pay you a month in advance" and held out the money. There was a momentary look of greed that passed over the woman's face. She took the money and said "I'm Mrs. Brody. Breakfast is at eight and I don't hold it for no one. Lav is at the end of the hall and sheets are changed on Tuesday."

She left him and he closed the door to his room with relief; he had been beginning to think he would start his student days in England while living on the streets. He checked his pockets and found only small change; the money he'd paid for the room had been nearly his last, but at least he would get breakfast. He wouldn't starve. And when classes started he would begin his job as lab assistant to Professor Collins; that had already been arranged. The pay wasn't much and the work would be tedious, but it would cover his room with enough to spare that he could eat or purchase other necessities. He could get by, he'd lived on less.

He opened his grip and began removing books and piling them on the desk. Helen turned away feeling a little voyeuristic and the scene faded to gray.

She felt a little sad; she'd known Nikola wasn't wealthy, but aside from a frayed cuff now and then he'd dressed well enough that she'd never realized how difficult those early times had been for him. He'd been thin when she met him, had he gotten even thinner when she'd known him at school?

She shook the thought off; ancient history, he'd managed. But how was she going to get free of his memories and find the lab? She took a step forward and was engulfed again.

This place she knew well, a room in the house where she'd grown up. John, James, and Nigel were all there too, and she could see herself seated in a chair. No one was talking and everyone seemed a bit grim.

Oh yes, the day they'd taken the serum. From Nikola's point of view it seemed different. She could see John standing behind Helen looking angry. She'd never realized he'd been so upset about her choosing Nikola to do the injection. He'd wanted to do it himself, being her fiancée, but that was exactly the reason she had refused his offer. He was too involved, too concerned about her and so was James. Nigel had never had good hands for detail work and didn't want to do it anyway.

But Nikola was a scientist, he could detach himself from any personal feelings, and his hands were always sure and quick at whatever he put them to. She trusted Nikola's hands.

Nikola turned away to fill the syringe, and with shock she saw his hands tremble, hidden from Helen sitting behind him. But he mastered himself and prepared the correct dosage. Why did everything look so strange?

Oh lord, he'd been having one of his episodes. He'd given no sign of it at the time, he'd seemed calm and steady to her, but in reality he'd been having one of his mini-seizures. At the time she hadn't even known about them, he hadn't told her until after his vampirism had eliminated the problem.

He approached her with the needle, and knelt beside her. He looked at her, giving her one last chance to back out of being the first to take the serum, but she was determined. Helen was pleased she'd shown such courage. Back in those days there weren't many things that a woman could do that would earn the respect of a man, but showing courage was one of them.

Nikola concentrated fiercely on his task, equally determined to do what she wanted and do it well with a minimum of discomfort for her. His vision was blurred at the edges, subtly twisted, but he slid the needle into her vein expertly and pushed down the plunger.

Helen remembered the sensation, the burning traveling up her arm, the warmth flooding her. But from Nikola's perspective she just sat there and everyone stood frozen waiting for her reaction. After a few seconds the physical sensation had subsided and she looked around a smiled at the men, John taking her hand and looking into her eyes with worry.

Nikola had backed off and properly disposed of the needle. His hands were steady, the visual distortions fading; it had just been the stress of the moment, he was fine. Although watching John and Helen made him a little sad, he had accepted their relationship as Helen's choice and she could feel that now. At the time she'd had no idea, but later when she'd grown closer to Nikola she'd come to suspect his feelings for her had started very early in their relationship.

She didn't want to stay in this memory any longer; John had been so different, she had loved him so much before he changed, seeing them together was painful now. Nikola had just stood by the table fussing with cleaning everything and preparing for the next injection so instead she began to walk away and the scene dissolved.

Was it really that easy? All she had to do to get out of a memory was refuse to cooperate with it? Perhaps, but that didn't get her out of the computer.

Helen stood still and concentrated on the grayness around her. When another smear of color threatened to take her into another memory, she turned her back and stepped away and it faded. She pictured the lab in her mind, willed the grayness to give way to its muted colors was pleasantly surprised to have the lab form around her. She hurried to her chair, reconnected and opened her eyes in the real world, feeling uneasy that it had been too simple all of a sudden when she hadn't been able to find the lab before at all.

But Henry was there, and Big Guy was monitoring Nikola's life signs. Everything seemed normal and real, although she had been fooled once before by Adam Worth into thinking virtual reality was true reality. But that had been deliberate, and there wasn't anyone actively working against her now- was there?

Helen banished that thought. She couldn't second guess her every move. Quickly she explained to Henry what she had found in the computer.

Henry just nodded and turned to his machine. He rapidly tapped the keyboard for a while, but Helen could sense there was something wrong.

"Henry, can you locate him?"

"Well, see, here's the thing Doc. When you two went in at first I could sort of see you as data density images moving around. But after we boxed the creature I couldn't find an image like that until you went back in, and then I could only see one."

"What does that mean?"

Henry opened his mouth and spread his hands, but just shook his head. Finally he said "I don't know. There are denser areas where the image wouldn't necessarily show up, but if he's there he's not moving around much. Maybe if Tesla was here he could figure it out or if I could find a way to contact him in there . . ."

"If we download his memories back into his head, wouldn't he come with them?"

"Not necessarily. You guys went in and out before without any sort of download."

Helen just waited, watching the wheels turn as Henry thought. Finally he said "Maybe I could send him a message somehow; something like a virus that would travel through the computer but not damage anything. Let me work offline on my laptop and see what I can come up with."

"Good, thank you Henry."

"I haven't done anything yet, and I'm not sure I can."

"I have faith in you."

Henry just ducked his head and nodded. Helen walked over to the open isolation chamber and watched Nikola breathe while his vital signs were displayed on the nearby monitor. Everything looked normal, his vampire body insisting on living regardless of the lack of occupancy.

Seeing John again had brought up a confusion of emotions. Grief he had changed and she had lost him, gladness she had Nikola now, fear she would lose him too. But most of all just determination she would find him and bring him back, and hope they would be together as a family once more. She went to see Danny; she suddenly very much wanted to hold him.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews Elizagoth, Epichlexi, and Jaydee B. Bailey.


	5. Chapter 5

When Nikola regained awareness Helen had already left. He'd expected it and he knew he had a little time to indulge himself before going back to the real world.

He considered spending some time with his parents and siblings, or indulging his senses with wine, music, and food, but rejected both options. Nearly everything available to him was from his own mind and he could revisit any of his memories whenever he wished without the aid of the computer.

Well he had to kill time somehow. He might as well do it in the lab so he'd be right there the moment Helen came to get him. He went through the door that normally led to the hall and stepped into the lab.

Nikola wandered around a little then decided perhaps he could save Helen the trip back into the computer. He got into the isolation chamber and picked up the Halo device to put it on, but noticed something odd. His sensitive fingers had felt an odd bumpiness to the black insulation on the wire.

He sat up and examined the device and the wire closely. He hadn't noticed before, but there were melted and burned spots on the virtual black wire that connected him to the real world connection that would allow him back into his body. That likely meant the real wire was burned as well.

"Son of a bitch" Nikola muttered. When the electrical creature had tried to follow him into the computer it must have damaged the wiring. Well, it wasn't a disaster, but he would have to wait for Helen to rejoin him, show her the problem and she could go back to reality and have the Halo device switched out for a fresh one. Just a delay, right?

He had a sudden alarming thought and quickly went over to the chair that Helen had used and checked her device. But he found no damage, which made sense since the creature had been in his body, not hers. Nikola was glad Henry hadn't seen him do something so illogical, but he wasn't sorry he'd done it just for his own peace of mind.

Well since he couldn't upload himself back into his body there was no point in hanging around for hours. He was a little curious to see if the old Sanctuary structures from their time battling Adam Worth were still around and there was all that data from Praxis still sitting there. He and Helen had been a bit too busy to spend any time admiring the scenery and Nikola thought there could have been portions created by Worth that they hadn't visited. He might as well look, there wasn't much else to do and he would be back well before Helen showed up again.

He visualized the Old City Sanctuary room they had used as their base last time and walked out of the lab into it, no problem. Walking down the hall, he veered over to the elevator and opened the door. The same sheer drop awaited him; that had held their attention the first time. But this time he looked around at the scenery and finally recognized it; the area where Helen had shot dear old Adam and he'd dropped himself off of a cliff for spite. What an insane guy.

Nikola turned away and started trying other doors as he came to them. He thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he whipped his head around there was nothing there, just the hallway. Okay, he had to admit the empty, slightly off Sanctuary was kind of creepy, but he shouldn't be imagining things like that. Worth was gone; there was nobody home but him.

Still, he moved forward a little more cautiously. He told himself that maybe one of his memories had seeped into this old unused area and he'd just caught a glimpse of some movement from one of them. Computers did that, if they ran out of room to put a whole file in one place, they would just put bits of it in whatever spaces were available and retrieve and reassemble it when called for.

Still, he'd been pretty thorough about clearing plenty of room for everything. But maybe he'd underestimated the space required; he did have a lot of memories. Well, it didn't really matter, there wasn't anything that could hurt him in here and he still wasn't overly sure if he could really be damaged in any way in a virtual world; although he could be knocked out, so maybe.

He wandered around opening doors and seeing where every hallway led. There really wasn't much more to the virtual Sanctuary than he and Helen had seen the first time. But once he reached the room with the Praxian data he settled in for a while. Being able to access it all without interference from Worth was very pleasant.

The large virtual control screen was his playground. This was not something from his imagination; this was real data external to his own mind and a treasure trove of information. Nikola happily pushed buttons just to see what they would do; when he had everything jammed up he found a way to reset the system and start over.

His understanding of the Praxian symbols improved rapidly. There was quite a bit of medical data that Helen would love, and if he could comprehend it well enough he could translate it for her. Nikola easily lost himself in it for hours.

Eventually he realized he'd been at it for a long time and decided to check in at the lab. Maybe Helen was back waiting for him and fuming at him keeping her waiting. He walked out of the old Sanctuary and into his current lab to see if Helen was back yet, but everything was just as he left it. Where was she? He checked the elapsed time- over seven hours now. Maybe he could send a message to Henry about the Halo device; he'd managed to send Praxian characters before, he could use simple English this time, or better yet transmit visual and audio and just talk to him.

That would be way cooler, but he'd need to get out of the memory area and into the programming and control area of the computer to find the correct program to activate.

Nikola walked out of the lab and into an early memory from his childhood. He was in a cold stream, diving under the water and fighting the current. He was removing debris from the end of a hose. Oh yes, that was when the village had tried out some new firefighting equipment. They thought it didn't work when the hose hadn't sucked up water, but he knew that the principles behind it were correct and it had to work so he'd gone in to see what the problem was. He'd fixed it and been the village hero for a day.

A nice memory, but he really didn't want to spend too much time on it. He turned away and walked out of the scene to grayness. Well that was odd; he'd been able to move directly where he wanted before, and now he was in some sort of inter-memory space. He concentrated on where he wanted to go, but nothing changed.

What the hell? He was the only one in here he should be able to do whatever he pleased. Something was interfering; no, it would have to be someone. But if Helen was back, she wouldn't interfere with him, she would be trying to find him. Nikola concentrated on her and a memory of last night formed around him. Again nice, but he needed data not pleasantness.

He walked out of it and stood again in grayness. Not Helen, then who? Could there still be a piece of Adam Worth in here? Last time it hadn't been at all difficult to find the little squirt.

Nikola called out "Worth! Adam Worth come here!" but nothing happened.

He tried "Hey Hyde, here I am, come and get me!" to no avail.

Nikola turned away and caught a glimpse of a distant figure that quickly faded. He stood frozen for a moment. What he'd seen was- himself. But that couldn't be. If he was in a memory, he would see it from his own perspective and wouldn't see himself . . . maybe a very small bit of memory of a mirror image?

But that answer was unsatisfactory. The image had been dressed exactly the same as he was, but this was a fairly new suit; he'd never worn it with this shirt and tie before. And the figure had been fully facing him while he'd been only partially turned toward it.

Nikola stood, frowning, trying to make sense out of the vision he'd seen. He really wished Helen would get back. Their minds complemented each other, what he didn't think of she did and vice versa. He walked slowly toward where he'd seen the figure, ignoring memories that attempted to distract him, but there was nothing there, no clue to explain what he'd seen. He was quite sure he hadn't imagined it, but a tiny bit of doubt seeped in.

Feeling a little foolish, he asked "Nikola Tesla, are you here?"

The hair on the back of his neck stood up when his own voice answered "You know I am."

Nikola whirled around, seeking the source of the voice but saw nothing. Maybe he shouldn't spend the time trying to send his image and voice and just use the Praxian symbols he'd used before. He backed away from the area and strode quickly back into the old Sanctuary virtual reality, passing unheeding through memories.

The control panel was as he'd left it. He started the symbol stream and began selecting those he could use when it blanked out. English letters appeared, reading "Nikola, you are in the computer. We are ready to return you to your body, come to the lab." The message repeated itself, blocking his use of Praxian to return a message.

He threw his hands in the air, frustrated. "I know I'm in the computer!" He took a deep breath and calmed himself. Okay, they were just trying to help. He could meet up with Helen in the lab and tell her everything in person, assuming he could get there. He walked out of the Sanctuary and tried to walk into the lab, but he ended up in a gray area again.

But it was a very small gray area surrounded by blackness. He halted; now what? Light flickered in the darkness at the edge of his vision. He turned his head and saw fingers of electricity dancing, coming from . . . nowhere. But he was in the middle of an electromagnetic environment, what other source was needed? Was there something wrong with the computer?

Nikola concentrated on the lab. It was his lab, he knew every inch of it and envisioned it exactly, but the virtual environment didn't respond to him and he stayed where he was in a small area of dim lighting surrounded by the dark. The electricity off in the darkness stopped.

He saw something else out of the corner of his eye and turned in time to see letters scrolling through the gray area reading ". . . are in the computer. We are ready to return you to your body, come to the lab."

Great, Henry had figured out how to invade every corner of the virtual environment with his message, but what happened if Nikola couldn't get to the lab?

Then he heard his own voice laughing.

"What do you want?" Nikola called out.

The gray area brightened and expanded. A figure that looked exactly like him strolled out of the darkness and stood facing him.

"I want to be you. I want your body, I want your life."

Nikola said "Well, you can't have it."

"You can't stop me."

Nikola walked up to his doppelganger and looked at it closely, examining it for flaws but found none. "Who or what are you? You're not Adam Worth."

"No, I'm you. I was that being you called an energy creature, but now I'm Nikola Tesla."

Nikola shook his head. "That's not possible. I repelled that thing when it tried to follow me here."

"Thing? That's not very polite considering we're exactly alike. You repelled most of me, but I managed to shed a portion of myself into this wonderful environment and some of me is the same as all of me, just, you know, smaller. I've been growing, gaining energy, and learning. I already knew you inside and out physically from living inside you for weeks, but now I know your mind too. All your knowledge, all your memories laid out like a giant feast."

"You'll never get away with it. You are _not_ me."

"We'll see. Can you get to the lab? No? That's because the computer and I are so sympatico that I can block you out. Well I can go to the lab and dear Helen will be so glad to see me and help me into sole possession of your body."

Nikola vamped and sprang at the being in front of him, but it vamped as well. They tussled, tearing at each other, ripping clothes and pseudo-flesh, but neither could gain the upper hand. Not-Nikola finally pushed the vampire back and they stood snarling at each other. Then he straightened, devamped and said "So long sucker" and disappeared.

"No!" Nikola tried to follow, but couldn't find the way. "Dammit!" he fumed and stormed around in a circle but quickly calmed down. He devamped and straightened his clothes which repaired and cleaned themselves. He had to contact Helen right now.

If he couldn't get to the lab, maybe Henry's message was out of the way and he could use the Praxian symbols. Nikola concentrated and found himself in the old Sanctuary and ran down the hallway.

The control board hung in the air as always and Henry's message was nowhere to be seen. He moved to it and got the scrolling symbols going again and started selecting ones for his message. What would that creature do once it was in his body? _Come on Henry, read it! Warn Helen!_

A/N: Lorienleaf and Epichlexi, thank you for the reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

Helen waited anxiously for word from Henry. He'd set up a scan so that if Nikola reattached himself to the Halo device the computer would alert both of them, but no alert came. It took a few hours, but the HAP finally managed to craft a virus with a message for the vampire and send it running through the heavily loaded machine.

She paced then in the lab, waiting for some sign Nikola was ready to return to his body. Henry glanced up at her occasionally, but mostly he stared at his screen and kept scanning for data density images.

"Hey I've got something!" he exclaimed.

Helen quickly went over to peer over his shoulder; he moved aside a bit to give her a better view.

"See, right there . . ." he pointed out on the screen.

Helen pointed to a different area. "And over there as well. How can there be two?"

"Wait a minute, there's another one. I don't get it; nothing for hours and then suddenly there's three of him- or them- or whatever."

Helen didn't waste time watching the screen. "I'm going in" she said and suited her actions to her words. In a moment she was seated and hooked up.

Henry rubbed his face and watched his monitor. For a moment after Helen arrived in the computer there were four moving images, then three, then two. "This is so weird." Brightening he added "Hey, but at least my message got through . . . I think."

Helen detached her Halo device and monitor and stood up. The lab door banged open and Not-Nikola strode through. She smiled in relief and he smiled too and pointed at her and said "Helen!"

An odd greeting, almost as if he was identifying her. But she was so glad to see him; nevertheless, she looked at him carefully and was satisfied with what she saw.

But instead of coming to her and embracing her, he turned to the isolation chamber and got in. Sitting on the edge he noticed her looking at him questioningly and said "I've been really bored, it'll be great to get into to my body and the real world."

"Of course" Helen agreed. "Then we can talk about where you've been for so long. I've been very worried. Here let me help you with that" she added as he lay down and fumbled with the Halo device.

She untangled the device and paused, feeling the irregularities in the wire. "Nikola, there's something wrong with this."

Not-Nikola sat up and took it from her. He ran a little electricity into it and said "It's okay, the wire will work it's just the insulation. Let's go."

"No, you shouldn't use it if it's damaged, let me go back and . . ."

"Helen, I said it's fine! Mess with it later, I want to get to reality _now_."

Helen was stunned. Nikola would never deliberately use damaged equipment, especially for something so crucial as transferring his consciousness. Something was wrong; why was he in such a hurry after so many hours?

"Nikola, are you all right? It isn't like you to be in such a rush that you would use burnt wiring."

He snatched the device out of her hands and placed it on his own head. As he did he said "I've been in here by myself too long, that's all" by way of excuse.

Helen watched him settle and then he disappeared. She quickly returned to her chair and made the transfer as well. Back in the real world she disengaged her equipment and turned to see him looking at his hands raised up in front of his face. Then he sat up with a jerk and looked at the rest of himself.

"Where's my suit?" he asked peevishly.

Henry replied absently "Right where you left it, Dude." Most of his attention was on his computer screen. "Hey, Doc? I think you need to see this."

Helen wasn't sure what to make of Nikola's odd behavior; surely he should remember what he had been wearing. But she turned her attention to Henry and went over and looked at his screen. There were Praxian symbols on it- one a negation, a group referring to oneself, and another group that meant Abnormal. The message repeated.

"When did you get this?" Helen asked quietly.

"Just now, after Dr. Fang arrived."

"It says 'not me, an Abnormal'." Helen glanced at Not-Nikola, but he had found his clothes and was dressing and ignoring them. "Bring up his prior EEG and do a comparison with current data."

Helen just nodded when she saw the dissimilar brain wave patterns.

Alarmed, Henry said "Doc?" But she just gave a little shake of her head- _don't do anything. _

She reached into a cabinet and extracted another Halo device; fortunately they had quite a few. She began replacing the damaged one while saying "Nikola, there was an error in your transfer; you'll need to go back in and come out again."

Not-Nikola scowled and said sharply "No, I'm fine."

"We were going to download your memories back, to make sure the computer was cleared. We still haven't done that and you should monitor progress from inside the computer to make sure everything is done properly. You _always_ like to do everything properly."

Not-Nikola hesitated; he didn't want her to become suspicious, not realizing she was already on to him. Helen continued "I'll even go in with you to keep you company. It should only take an hour or so." She smiled at him and went over to Henry and said in a very low voice "Do you have another box trap?"

"Just the prototype."

"It'll have to do. Just in case, safe word Gregory."

Henry just nodded and tapped on his keyboard. Not-Nikola said suspiciously "Show me what you're looking at" and walked over to join them. On the screen were power consumption graphs and Henry pointed at two that showed very different curves and said "See? Your own tracking program came up with these."

Not-Nikola hesitated and said "I . . . oh. Well then I suppose . . ."

"Good" Helen said quickly. "I'll help you hook up and then join you."

Suddenly the lab door banged open and Will walked in smiling and said "So this is where everybody is. I solved the . . ."

Helen interrupted him. "Excellent, Will. Nikola and I are just going to go into the computer to clean up a few things, why don't you have a nice chat with Henry?"

Will froze, detecting the false note in her voice and sensing the tension in the room. "Uh, okay."

Not-Nikola was staring at him but Helen didn't give him time to contemplate the new arrival. She chivvied him into the isolation chamber and attached the physical monitor and the new Halo device and quickly seated herself and joined him.

Will turned to Henry and asked "What was that?"

"Bad things are happening" Henry replied, but most of his attention was on the computer. "We thought we captured the energy creature, but now it seems there's at least one more of them in the computer, maybe two." He looked up. "And that wasn't Tesla."

Will squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head, shaking it a little. Then he sighed, looked up and said "Another day at the Sanctuary. What do you want me to do?"

"Go in my lab and get a black rubberish box about that big; it attaches on the top of Tesla's chamber." His attention was drawn back to his screen. "No, no NO!" Henry typed something and alarms went off.

"What?" Will asked looking around.

"Damn, something is trying to get out into the network." Henry was typing furiously but said "Get the box!"

Will took off after it and soon reappeared with the prototype trap, and worked on attaching it to the isolation chamber.

When Helen arrived in the virtual lab she detached herself, stood up and turned to find two Nikola Teslas looking at her. They were identical in every respect, and neither was particularly close to the chamber.

The one to her right grinned and said "Helen, thank God. I couldn't get here before, he was blocking me somehow."

The one to her left whipped his head around and said "I don't believe in God." Then to Helen he added "Obviously he's the fake."

The right-hand Nikola replied "Of course he's going to say that. Just ask us something only I would know."

Left-hand Nikola argued "But he's had access to all my memories, he'll know everything I do."

Helen looked back and forth. "There are no less than four beings in here according to the data density images in the computer. Myself, Nikola, and at least one energy being, perhaps two or perhaps someone else completely. The real Nikola Tesla is a very clever fellow and I'm sure he'll be able to think of a way I can tell him from the fake."

The two Teslas looked at each other. The one on her right cocked his head and said "Having a memory of doing something isn't the same as being able to do it."

The Tesla on the left thought about that for a moment and then nodded. A chalk board appeared next to him and he turned to it and began writing a complicated mathematical equation on it.

Right-hand Tesla smiled a little and looked at her with a very familiar glint in his eye. He strode to her while the other Tesla was scratching away, took her in his arms and kissed her. He was still kissing her when the other Tesla finished at his board and turned around.

"That's not fair!" he complained. Right-hand Tesla ended the kiss and gestured toward Helen. "Your turn while I take care of your little problem."

Helen didn't like being passed like a bottle of wine, but the way each Nikola kissed was certainly data so she allowed it. They switched places, but Helen was already pretty sure who was Nikola and who wasn't. The second Tesla to kiss her wasn't bad at it, but there simply wasn't the same level of familiarity and hand-roaming exhibited by the first Tesla. It was how Nikola had kissed her a hundred years ago; much more gentlemanly. When she came up for air and looked at the board, Nikola had not only written down the answer to the equation but he'd corrected the equation itself.

Nikola said "You went back too far." He pointed at the board and added "What you wrote is based on outdated science. Helen, what are we going to do with him?"

But Not-Nikola was standing right next to her. He vamped and grabbed her, threatening her with claws and fangs. "Nothing! I'm going back into your body and if you try to stop me I'll rip her to shreds!"

Very quietly Helen said "Well now I'm absolutely sure."

Nikola looked to her for a decision. "If he hurts you here . . ."

"I don't know what will happen."

Nikola shook his head. "Then I won't risk it. Go ahead, take my body" he said to the energy creature, and backed up a couple of paces with his hands raised in surrender.

Not-Nikola dragged Helen over to the isolation chamber and held her arm with one hand while awkwardly putting on the Halo device with the other. Then he disappeared and Helen sprinted toward her own device.

"We'll fix it" she said as she put it on, her eyes meeting Nikola's. A moment of complete trust passed between them and he nodded. She added "Meanwhile you're not alone in here and the safe word is Gregory."

"If you have to just dump everything into me and we'll sort it out later."

He could see fear in her eyes at the suggestion; if they did that the odds of losing him would go up dramatically. "Last resort" she said and disappeared.

Nikola contemplated the empty lab, walked over and sat down on a stool. He was tired, and without any connection to his body he had no source of renewing his energy. The electromagnetic field in the computer was comfortable for him, but he needed to actually feed and for that he needed a physical body.

But if there was another creature in here with him . . . the energy creature could live on the computer's EM field, even grow and thrive. The computerized Adam Worth had been like that, increasing his strength and control as he learned, whereas Nikola was just . . . what; a disembodied soul, a wandering consciousness that still had a living body somewhere?

Helen had said there could even be more than one being in here with him, there was no reason the original creature couldn't have split off numerous bits of itself before it withdrew. The fact that Helen was only sure about one or two more didn't mean there weren't a dozen little baby creatures zapping around through his memories.

Well, he had a job to do. The fact that she'd specifically told him about another creature meant that she expected him to do something about it, just like he knew she would get his body back for him, somehow. He smiled a little thinking about how much fun they'd had with that body- yeah, she wasn't going to give that up.

Where would a second or additional creatures be? They'd probably consider the Praxian stuff useless; it wasn't going to get them out of the computer. And their twin brother had already used Nikola's image to try for his body, so there was no point in repeating that trick, although one or more of them still might use him just to confuse everyone even more.

But they might also try other images in hopes that person would connect to the computer and try to hijack the body, but that was a real long shot except for Helen. Or they could try to escape directly in their own form into the Sanctuary network and then out into the global grid. Nikola hoped Henry was up to the task of stopping that from the real world, but it was another thing for him to check on from inside.

Nikola got up off the stool and tugged down the bottom of his vest and adjusted his cuffs. He might be tired but he was a long way from being out of energy, and he had work to do. The faster he took care of things in here, the sooner he could go back to reality and be with Helen and Danny.

A/N: Epichlexi, Jaydee B. Bailey and Lorienleaf- thank you for the reviews.


	7. Chapter 7

Helen arrived in reality to a lot of loud cursing. It was coming from the isolation chamber, but the chamber was open. She disconnected and went over to see Nikola- no, Nikola's body occupied by the energy creature- restrained at wrists and ankles with titanium manacles bolted to the chamber.

From behind her Will said "We thought it might be a good idea to make sure who was in there before letting him wander around."

Henry added "And that is definitely not Tesla. The real Nikola would have made a few scathing remarks and made us feel like idiot children for restraining him."

"This guy," Will continued, "just went nuts and started struggling."

"Good job, both of you" Helen said.

The creature stopped fighting the restraints. Panting a little it said "I'm not going into that box. It might have worked once, but it'll never work again now that I know about it. What did you do with the rest of me?"

Helen approached the chamber more closely. "It's still in the other box."

"Well that's not really fair, is it? I'd hate to think the only creature not worthy of your protection is me and my kind."

Those were the exact words Nikola had said to her about vampires in Afina's chamber. The electrical being had undoubtedly gotten it from Nikola's memories, but Helen couldn't deny it applied.

"You have a point" she admitted.

Will came up beside her. "You can't let that thing out, it's dangerous."

Helen nodded. "Yes, it is, and I'm not giving it Nikola's body, but we have quite a few dangerous creatures here Will. That doesn't prevent us from trying to give them some sort of life, even if it's a restricted one."

She turned to Henry. "Could we create some sort of habitat for them? Something they couldn't possibly escape?"

Henry frowned. "Like what, a bigger box?"

Helen considered. "Perhaps, but with some enrichment factors." She turned back to Nikola's body and asked "What sort of environment would you prefer?"

"I'm in the environment I prefer, if I could get out of these restraints."

"I won't allow you to take anyone over. They have a right to live their own lives too. Your natural habitat was that mine within the area of lodestone. Something like that?"

"Don't be naïve. We were in that mine because we didn't know anything else, but we do now. We want out!"

"Well you can't have out."

"Then you'll never get your boyfriend back."

There was silence in the lab after that pronouncement. Helen turned away from the isolation chamber and said "Henry, Will, we need a safe habitat for as many of these creatures as we find and we need a way of handling them; most specifically, a way to force them out of whoever they inhabit and into a controlled environment."

She turned to leave, but Not-Nikola said "Why not just let me keep this body? I could be a much better boyfriend than your old one, more attentive, less trying to take over the world or squirreling away in a lab for weeks at a time. And I promise not to empty your wine cellar."

Helen looked back and said "That's exactly why. You don't understand humans, you don't understand love. You and your brothers may be nearly interchangeable, but people aren't. Sorry, but I won't settle for anyone but the real, original Nikola Tesla no matter how irritating he might be at times. Henry, let me know when you come up with something."

Henry said "Right, Doc. What do we do with him in the meantime?"

"Leave him where he is."

Will asked "What about feeding him? He's starting to look a little peaked."

"No, don't add to his strength. Nikola's body will be fine until we can get the creature out of him."

Helen left the lab and Will and Henry exchanged a look. Will asked "How do we do that?"

Henry shrugged "How should I know?"

"Hey, you're the inventor."

"Yeah, okay. Why don't you go scout for a unit we can use to put them in, while I figure out how to get it out of Tesla. Just because Tesla couldn't get it out of himself doesn't mean I can't come up with something, right?"

"Right; you can do it."

Will left the lab while Henry mumbled "Right, sure, of course, no problem." But he couldn't quite convince himself.

/

Nikola went out to the edge of the memory area. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for; the external interfaces might look like anything from the inside. He was most concerned with the power supply. The battery had a limited life so the computer was plugged into a surge protector and then the Sanctuary electrical system. That was one way the creature could exit that Henry couldn't prevent from outside, unless he unplugged the computer.

That thought worried Nikola a little. What if it had been unplugged and it was running on battery? What if he was still inside when it ran out of juice? Would the lack of electrical power kill him? He just didn't know.

He found a set of cross-hatched metallic-looking bars. They weren't part of the virtual world exactly, but a virtual representation created by the computer to indicate a limit. Nikola tentatively touched them; they felt real enough. He reached between them and felt a tingling sensation and then his extended fingers disappeared. He quickly pulled his hand back and his fingers faded back into view, but not quite like before. They looked a little translucent, then gradually became solid again.

"Nikola! Is that the way out?" asked a female voice he knew well from behind him.

He turned to see Helen dressed in a very nice navy suit that might have been stylish back in the 1930's.

"Is there something in particular you want to say to me Helen?" he asked, but he was already quite sure this was an electrical creature, not the real Helen.

Not-Helen looked momentarily confused, but then said "I'm glad to see you. What's beyond the grid?"

No password. "Outside. The connection to the electrical grid should be close." It wasn't, at least not in terms of the size they were in the virtual world.

Not-Helen approached the grid and looked hungrily into the darkness beyond. "Is it safe?"

In answer Nikola placed his hand on the bars, being careful not to extend his hand beyond them. "This is a computer representation of a limit. There's no need for either of us to go beyond it, we transfer from the lab into our bodies."

"But if our bodies are disconnected, we could go this way?"

"No, we would go into the grid, not ourselves. The electrical creatures might like it, but we wouldn't."

Not-Helen nodded in agreement, but her attention was still on the space beyond the bars. Nikola took his hand off of the bars and backed off a little.

"Have you seen anyone else in here Helen? Are there more electrical creatures?"

Not-Helen shrugged almost absent-mindedly. "I haven't seen any more."

Nikola backed off further. "I'm going back to the lab, do you want to come?"

"I'll be along shortly, you go ahead."

Nikola smiled a little and moved away until he could just barely see her. Then he waited and watched.

Not-Helen extended her hand and touched the bars. When nothing happened, she began to change, melting into a swirl of colors through which Nikola could see flashes of electricity. The colors faded until all that was left was one of the creatures. It hesitated for only a moment and then zipped between the bars out into the darkness.

Nikola walked back to the bars slowly, watching the flickering light seemingly move farther away, first in one direction then another, becoming smaller and weaker as it went. Eventually it sputtered out.

He didn't feel very proud of himself. He'd managed to get one of the electrical creatures to destroy itself but it hadn't been much more than a baby. And the fact that it had taken Helen's form made it worse somehow. He wondered if it had been a female, or if they even had sexes; perhaps not. But at least he'd found a way to get rid of little ones if he found any more.

Walking along the outer grid seemed to tire him more than wandering among his memories, but he kept at it. He found a Not-Will and a Not-Adam before he'd completed his circuit and lured them both to their deaths in the same way he'd lured the Not-Helen. The creatures really weren't very bright, at least not until they'd had a chance to inhabit an intelligent being.

By the time he reached his starting point again Nikola could see his hands were becoming translucent. In fact, all of him was. He needed to get back to his body right now, but it had to be hooked up in the real world for him to do that. He had to tell Helen, Henry, someone and quickly.

Nikola headed back to the Praxian area. He could transmit from there, but he was finding it harder to think. His knowledge of Praxian was limited and he couldn't seem to remember much of it at the moment, but maybe he could use the English letters Henry had sent.

He pulled in the viral message that was still wandering around and started selecting letters. Why hadn't the boy used more variety? No "w", only two "d's", three "n's", but maybe . . .

Nikola sent "help Need to return to body imme iately halo". It wasn't elegant, but hopefully the message would get across; he put it on repeat. Now where had he left the lab? Oh yes, it wasn't in the Old Sanctuary, he had to get out and the exit was . . . over there?

He wandered out of the hallways and into a memory and stood transfixed watching John and Helen kiss while Nigel joked "get a room you two". Nikola shook his head to clear it and walked away; he hadn't wanted to watch that when it happened, much less repeat the experience. The lab . . . oh yes, it was right over there.

The lab was as he'd left it, but it seemed foreign to him. There was the halo device- no there were two of them, which one was his? Nikola sat down in a chair but it didn't feel right to him so he got up and went over to the weird looking bed. Was it a coffin? He didn't want to get in a coffin; he wasn't dead yet, was he?

Or maybe he was. Everything around him was looking odd, soft around the edges, blurry? No, that wasn't the correct word in English, it was . . . he didn't finish the thought, it didn't matter. Nikola picked up the halo device near the coffin but it didn't seem right. Hadn't it been damaged? This one seemed fine though.

He could see the device through his fingers. Translucent, that was the word, like he was fading, everything was fading. No the device was solid-looking it was just him that was looking more like a ghost than a person.

Nikola concentrated on his hands. He had to be solid, real, even though this was a virtual lab. But he had to be here when Helen came, and she would come, he knew she would and what would she do if he wasn't here? She would be upset, and Danny . . . his son wouldn't have a father and that would be bad, very bad.

His hands slowly solidified, as did the rest of him. There, that was better. Now where was Helen? Shouldn't she be here? How long ago had he sent the message? He wasn't sure, and that frightened him more than looking like a ghost. His time sense was usually excellent, but if he was losing his mind, then more than just his image would disappear.

Nikola sat on the edge of the isolation chamber- that's what it was, not a coffin, right. Okay, he was doing better. He fiddled with the halo device in his hands. Should he put it on? No, he'd wait for Helen. That other creature had gone into his body; he needed to know whether or not it was still there.

And then Helen appeared in the chair; good thing he hadn't sat there. She smiled at him, but her smile faded. "Nikola? You look like hell."

"Thanks a lot, you look lovely and Gregory."

"We got your message. What's happened?"

"I got rid of three of the creatures, that's all I could find but there could be more. But I'm starting to lose myself in here."

"Lose yourself? What do you mean?" Helen went over and put her hand on his arm. He felt solid enough, but he didn't seem quite solid visually.

"I don't know. I've been out of my body too long, I need to get back. Is the creature gone?"

"No, it understands the trap and it refuses to leave. Will is talking to it, trying to convince it we can give it a good home outside of your body."

Nikola ran a hand through his hair. "So what do we do? I can't stay in here unattached much longer."

"We load you up. Your body is restrained and I'll put the halo device on it. I'll have Henry start to upload your memories. We just need to check and make sure everything goes, and then you can go too."

"What about the creature?"

"We'll get it out of you quickly, and if we can't then you'll have to deal with it; you did before."

"How long?"

"Less than an hour, and then we'll start the process. It should go quickly."

Nikola gesture with the halo device questioningly.

Helen said "Not yet. Lie down and rest, I'll come back and put it on you when it's time."

"'Kay." Nikola lay down and closed his eyes. Helen stood next to the isolation chamber for a moment watching him, hoping he would still be there when she came back; he was already starting to fade again.

"Don't forget, I'm kissing you awake at the other end." Nikola didn't open his eyes, but she got a flicker of a smile in response. Then Helen went to take care of business.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, epichlexi and JBB. Sorry updates are taking longer than usual, but it's spring and yard work and getting the garden ready are sucking up a lot of my energy.


	8. Chapter 8

Back in the real world Helen found that Will was actually making some progress with the creature. Henry had rigged up a stand-alone computer in an electrically null containment area and powered it with the odd stones he had used for his F.O.S.S.S.

Will was offering the creature a variety of virtual environments, learning programs, and telling it if it split itself it could have company, a family, even an entire society if it wanted. Helen wasn't sure if the creature was buying it or not, but it was listening at least.

Meanwhile Henry was feverishly working on a strange-looking gun, not entirely unlike the one Nikola had created to kill the Cabal vampires; in fact it was the same gun with modifications. Helen went over to him and asked "What is this, Henry?"

"I've adapted Tesla's concept but changed the type of radiation being used so it won't kill him, exactly, but it should totally damp any electrical field it hits."

"That would include Nikola's life processes, so how is that not killing him?"

"Yeah, it would stop his body, but he's not in there, right? So we load up his memories and any more of the creatures that come with them then irradiate him. We give them one exit point into the box and trap them like we did the first one."

"Then we allow Nikola back into his body; it won't do him any permanent harm?"

"Well . . . I haven't had time to test it yet. How's he doing? That message he sent sounded kinda desperate."

"Not well I'm afraid. We don't have a great deal of time. We'll have to trust to Nikola's ability to heal himself."

"I dunno if that's a great idea. Like I said, I'm not too sure about this."

"I have faith in you Henry" Helen replied, laying a hand reassuringly on his arm. Henry just nodded and Helen went to add her voice to Will's addressing the creature.

Helen said "Listen carefully. You will have one chance to leave Nikola's body and enter the box along with any of your compatriots that end up joining you in there when we dump the computer. The device Henry is working on will destroy you if you don't. Once in the box you will be removed from this lab and taken to the containment area which has the computer that can be your new home and released into it. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

"I don't understand you people. Why is it such a big deal if I'm in this body instead of him? I'll look exactly the same and I'd be nicer than him."

Helen considered a moment before answering. "Perhaps you will never understand, being part of one creature, but we are all unique individuals and we cherish that uniqueness. I fell in love with Nikola Tesla, his mind, his quirky personality and his soul; that fact that he's physically attractive is a bonus, not the most important factor. You aren't him, no one else is, and no one else will do."

Not-Nikola rattled his restraints in frustration. "I don't want to go into that box. How do I know that you're all not lying to me, and you'll really release me like you say?"

Will answered "Because that's our job, it's what we do. We take care of beings that can't live in the real world, either because they are dangerous to it or because the world is dangerous to them. I know we've been fighting with each other, but there's a better option now and all we're asking is that you give us a chance to exercise it."

Non-Nikola didn't respond and Helen placed the halo device on his head. "Henry," she asked, "Are we ready to begin the transfer?"

The HAP put aside his tools and went to his laptop. "Whenever you give the word."

"Start the memory transfer." Henry punched a couple of keys and said "Memory upload begun." He went back to working on his revised radiation gun.

Helen took one last look at Not-Nikola; he seemed calm, almost bored. She put her own halo device back on and went to join Nikola in the virtual environment.

He was still in the isolation chamber and looked asleep, but he seemed to have faded a little more. The halo device wasn't attached to him, but flickers of light and sound were streaming through the virtual wall of the lab into the device; Nikola's memories going back into his head. She imagined a stool for herself next to the isolation chamber and sat down and held his hand. He didn't react, and his hand felt cold.

There wasn't anything for her to do, really, but Helen felt better holding on to him. She watched the memories stream past; they were squished into a thin stream and moving too quickly for her to make out anything, but once or twice there was a brighter flash of electricity that went with them. More electrical creatures she presumed; apparently every spark they had created had turned into another being.

When the stream thinned, she released Nikola's hand and went to check on the rest of the computer to be sure everything had transferred. At the lab doorway she stopped and peered out. There was only darkness, no apartment, no Old Sanctuary, no Praxian data, no memories. Helen hoped Nikola wouldn't mind the Praxian upload; they hadn't planned to put it all in his head, but there wasn't time to do any sorting. Chances were he'd not only enjoy sorting through it, he'd use it to find ways to show off. She smiled a little at that thought; Nikola really did like showing off, but she could never be angry with him about it, he usually had good reason. And a little theatricality was fun.

That seemed to be the end of the upload. Helen went back to Nikola and was shocked to see he'd faded substantially in just the few seconds she'd been gone. Quickly she put the halo device on his head; she could still physically feel him sort of, but it felt like if she pushed hard her hand would go right through him.

"Nikola, Henry is going to irradiate your body to drive out the electrical creatures. I've put the halo device on you, but don't transfer yet" Helen said urgently, not knowing if he heard or understood her. Then she quickly put on her own device and returned to reality.

Not-Nikola was struggling wildly. Helen removed the halo, Will closed the lid on the chamber and Henry brought over his completed gun. The plexiluminum top of the chamber wouldn't impede the radiation dose. Big Guy was standing back out of the way with the crash cart.

"Into the box now!" cried Helen. "If you want to survive, move, this is your only chance!"

They saw Nikola's body go slack, electrical flickering, and then a flow of electricity into the prototype box; it didn't have an automatic closure like the finished product, but when the flow ceased Will moved a physical lever closing the trap and pulled it off of the chamber and set it aside.

Had all the creatures gone? Only one way to be sure there weren't any still lurking in Nikola's body; Henry got up on a small step-ladder and fired down into the chamber. Tesla was bathed in a violet glow and there were flashes of electricity that flickered and disappeared with loud snaps. Whether there had been creatures or it was all from Nikola there was no way to tell.

After a few seconds the snapping stopped; Henry kept firing a little longer, just to make sure. When all remained quiet and still in the chamber, he stopped and got down.

Helen opened the chamber. "Let's get Nikola back in here. Big Guy, bring over the crash cart in case he needs assistance restarting. Henry, take care of the creatures please." She put the halo back on Nikola's head and went to her chair and donned her own.

In virtual reality she detached herself and leapt to the isolation chamber. It was empty, but the halo device was lying where Nikola's head would have been. Had he transferred? Or was he still in the computer somewhere? She refused to let herself think of the other possibilities; Nikola had transferred too soon and been destroyed by the radiation, or he had faded out completely here and never had the chance to go back into his body.

If he had transferred . . . Will and Big Guy were waiting to help him. If he hadn't then she needed to find him. But the lab itself was turning translucent with no one there to believe in it. Helen firmed it up; it had to be there if . . . when she found Nikola. She went out of the lab and created light.

If he was there, he would be faint and hard to see. She strengthened her light and swept it slowly in a circle like a searchlight. "Nikola? Are you there?"

There was no answer. She swept her light around again, looking carefully and continuing to call. Nothing. Could he still be in the lab and she just hadn't seen him? Helen turned off the light and went back.

The isolation chamber was definitely empty. To be sure, she swept her hands through it but felt no resistance. Helen looked through the lab thoroughly and called, but it still seemed empty. Perhaps this was all for nothing, he could be back in his body waiting for her.

She put on her own halo device and transferred back to reality.

Big Guy still had the paddles in his hands, but Nikola's monitoring device was attached and recording a steady heartbeat. Helen could see he was breathing, but his eyes were closed.

Will said "The vampire's body is working, but there's been no sign of consciousness yet. Did he transfer?"

Helen kept staring at Nikola as she answered. "I don't know. He's not . . . I can't find him in the computer. I left him with the halo on . . . where's Henry?"

"Putting our little friends to bed" Will replied, "Do you want me to get him?"

Helen nodded, watching Nikola breathe, willing him to open his eyes. Big Guy packed up the crash cart and moved it against the wall out of the way.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked. He didn't care much about Tesla, but he cared very much about Magnus and he was worried about her. She'd nearly come apart when she lost Ashley, what would happen if Tesla was gone?

She just shook her head. "No, thank you old friend; I'm sure you have work to do."

Big Guy watched her for a moment; but that had been a dismissal so he left. When he'd gone and she was alone with Nikola Helen took his hand, leaned over and gently kissed his lips. She had promised.

"Come on, sweet prince, wake up" she whispered. "Nikola, please, if you're in there don't tease me, not right now."

But there was no response. Helen was still holding his hand when Henry came back into the lab.

"Will said you wanted to see me?"

"Yes. If Nikola transferred back into his body before you irradiated it, what would happen to him?"

Henry looked scared. "I don't know. It would have damped out all his electrical impulses including whatever was going on in his brain, which would have . . . I don't know. You're kind of asking me what his consciousness or his soul is made out of and nobody knows the answer to that."

"So he could be alive even if he did transfer too soon."

Henry didn't know what to say. He didn't want to give her false hope, but he couldn't deny the possibility, especially with a vampire. He just shrugged.

Helen pointed at the now nearly empty computer. "Keep that on. I'm not completely sure if he's still in there or not."

"Yeah, okay, sure, no problem." There was a long silence then Henry asked "Is there anything else? I got those electrical creatures into the stand-alone computer; don't know what they're doing in there, but . . ."

He trailed off. Helen just shook her head and Henry left; sometimes it was better to let the Doc handle things herself.

She stayed with Nikola for hours, watching, hoping for some sign. Eventually Big Guy brought her tea and a sandwich. Helen thanked him, but he loitered, pretending to clean the crash cart.

"If you have something to say, say it" Helen said quietly.

"Mmm, we could do an EEG, see what's going on in there."

"I doubt it would tell us much since he's unconscious" she replied, not looking him in the eye.

"Or it might tell us too much?" he asked gently, knowing how hard it would be for her if Tesla was flatlined.

"I'll decide what tests are needed and when."

He made an unhappy noise deep in his throat. Then he said "I'll come back later for the dishes." Biggie left, but Will and Henry came in less than ten minutes later. Helen sighed a little; she was being tag-teamed, but she couldn't object to people caring about her.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Will asked.

"I'm fine Will."

Henry said "We were just thinking, you didn't have a lot of time to look around in the computer, maybe we could help- you know, take a look."

Helen said accusingly "You've already scanned it haven't you."

Henry looked uncomfortable but admitted "Yeah, I couldn't find any data density images, but I couldn't spot the smaller creatures either, so if he's weak he might not show up."

Will added "And we were thinking we could go in and do a thorough search for you so you could stay with him here. That would give us a better idea of what we're dealing with."

Helen thought for a moment; she would prefer to do the searching herself, but she couldn't be in two places at once and right now she didn't want to leave Nikola.

"All right. If you find him . . ."

"We'll send him home" Henry finished for her.

A/N: epichlexi and Jaydee B Bailey, thank you for the reviews. Had rain for a few days on and off so I had some time to write.


	9. Chapter 9

Will and Henry came to the lab ready to explore the virtual world and search for Tesla. Henry was geared up like he was going on and actual mission, which earned him an amused glance from Helen.

He noticed and said, "Hey, I've never done this before. I figured if I have all this stuff in the real world I'll have it over there too and be ready for anything."

Will commented, "Whatever helps you focus." He turned to Helen and asked, "Any advice?"

She replied, "Just be thorough. There probably isn't much in there aside from the lab, but your own minds can create things so if you run into anything odd, it's probably coming from one of you."

Henry looked at Will and asked, "Dude, you're not still having those nightmares, are you?"

"Nah, not for months." Will sat down in a chair and picked up the halo device Magnus had been using while Henry took another out of the cabinet and settled himself nearby.

They arrived in the virtual reality lab, but the walls were missing; only darkness greeted them beyond. Virtual Henry did have all his gear and he turned on his headlamp while Will just created a big flashlight. They flashed light around outside the lab but didn't see anything, just a smooth gray floor.

Will asked "Any preference on where we start?"

Henry just shrugged and walked out through where the door had been with Will following him. They moved in a straight line, as near as they could tell, until they reached the outer barrier.

Will commented "You know if he's in here and moving around we'll never find him like this."

"I figure we see if there's anything else left in here besides the lab. If not, the lab would be the only thing to attract him. If there is, well . . ."

"It would depend on what it was."

"And if there isn't we set up a lure in the lab."

"Like what, Serbian dancing girls?"

Henry snorted and shook his head. "I was thinking wine; lots and lots of wine."

"That should do it" Will agreed. "And we can add in some books, but as I recall, no Trollope." They continued going back and forth from barrier to barrier until they'd covered the entire virtual area without finding anything. It took hours and they both were tired by the time they returned to the lab.

They created several wine racks and filled them with dusty bottles; the labels were all a bit generic and hazy since neither of them were big wine drinkers and didn't know much about it. The same with the books they imagined up; they looked nice in the bookshelf but only a few had clear titles on the spines and all had blank pages. It didn't really matter, they were only attempting to attract Tesla, not really entertain him.

Will called out "Hey Tesla, look what's in your lab, all for you!"

Henry added "And I'm going to tinker with everything you're working on if you don't come and stop me!"

Will sat down and waited quietly while Henry walked around touching and fiddling with the lab equipment. But an hour went by and all remained still and silent.

Finally Henry said, "Dude, I don't think he's in here."

"I agree. Let's get out of here."

Helen was waiting for them when they returned to reality; she only left Nikola to spend time with Danny.

"Sorry Doc," Henry said. "We went through the whole place and even set up a library and wine lure, but nada."

"If he's anywhere, he has to be in there," Will said, gesturing toward Nikola's unresponsive body. "Are you sure you can't wake him up?"

Helen nodded and said, "I've tried everything I can think of, Will. Thank you both for your efforts, Gentlemen."

Will offered, "Do you want us to help you move him to the infirmary?"

But she shook her head and said, "Not yet." Both men looked at each other and then left. They knew how stubborn Helen Magnus could be; she would do what she wanted in her own time.

Big Guy brought her a cart with her dinner on it, including a white tablecloth over the whole cart. He set up an elegant place setting and covered dishes at one of the lab benches facing the isolation chamber so she could see Nikola while she ate, and then parked the cart against the wall.

Helen thanked him and sat down to eat. Then she noticed the lower shelf of the cart was full of electronic equipment- the EEG machine. _Not very subtle, Biggie._

But maybe he was right. Maybe it was time. She finished her dinner slowly, putting off a final decision. She needed to find out what was or was not going on in Nikola's head, but not until she was sure she wouldn't be interrupted or have someone hovering over her. She wanted to be alone when she found out.

She settled in next to him and waited, eventually falling asleep with her head pillowed on his arm. She awoke very early, just a little after four a.m. Everything was still and quiet, but she was stiff from sleeping in such an odd position and stood and stretched first. Then she wheeled the EEG machine over near the isolation chamber and methodically hooked up Nikola to the machine.

"All right Nikola, you'd better be in there," she murmured and flipped the switch. Instant relief when the styluses indicating his brain waves started moving up and down, but that turned to concern when she realized they weren't moving in a normal pattern at all. In fact the movement was extremely exaggerated; they zipped up and down, jamming at the extreme edges of their range of movement, then nearly stilled, and then continued on erratically.

Helen only watched for a few moments, then turned off the machine and removed the electrodes from Nikolas' head. What did it mean?

Well he was in there, or at least someone was, but why wasn't Nikola waking up? Helen turned off the EEG machine and slowly disconnected the vampire from it, thinking about what might be the problem.

Had reloading all those memories caused some sort of cross-wiring, or had Henry's dose of radiation created mental confusion? Or was Nikola's weakened state the issue? She wasn't sure why his consciousness had been fading except for the separation from his body for so long, but if he was back inside then he should be stronger. Physically he might be a little weak, not having eaten in quite a while, but that she could fix.

Helen went to the lab refrigerator and was pleased to find Nikola had a couple of baggies of blood stored in there. Helen didn't have the equipment in the lab to set up an IV, but the crash cart had large hypodermics. She used one to extract blood from a baggie and inject it into Nikola, repeating the process until she'd emptied the bag.

Sitting down next to him again, she took his hand and found it warmer.

"Come on, Nikola, I know you're in there. Wake up!"

She had another thought and went back to the cart for smelling salts. She opened the tiny bottle and waved it under Nikola's nose. She'd tried it before with no results, but this time his head twitched, a tiny crease appeared between his eyebrows, and he opened his eyes and turned his head away.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, recapping the bottle. "Nikola, are you all right?"

His eyes were still unfocused and he moved his head back toward her, his hands moving a little randomly too. Then his body relaxed and his eyes closed again.

Helen took him by the shoulders and shook him a little. "You are not going back to sleep, wake up!"

His eyes opened again, and he murmured, "Ya sam umoran," and his eyes started to close. She gave him another dose of the smelling salts. She didn't know what he'd said, but she'd come to recognize Serbian when she heard it.

This time he jerked awake and blinked a few times. She kept the bottle ready, but Nikola's eyes were focused on her and he seemed aware. Helen waited tensely; the Serbian words were a good sign, but the electrical creatures could have picked some up from his memories too. But they were supposed to be gone now, either destroyed or in the stand-alone computer.

"Nikola?" she said uncertainly.

He gave her a small smile and said, "Hi."

"Hi," Helen replied, smiling back. "How do you feel?"

"Okay, a little tired," he said slowly.

"Can you get up?"

In response he struggled up to a sitting position. He looked past her at the lab and his eyes got big. "Wow."

Nikola swung his legs over the side of the isolation chamber and Helen backed off. He got out but held on to the side for a few moments, steadying himself. But his eyes went back to the lab equipment and he let go and walked carefully around, lightly touching pieces of equipment and examining partially-built inventions.

Helen watched, dismayed. This was his lab. Everything in it was something he had either purchased or built. He should know every item intimately, but he was acting like he was exploring unknown territory. Surely an electrical being would be faking it better than this. And it was reassuring how interested he was in the lab; an electrical creature wouldn't care about that sort of thing.

"Nikola, don't you recognize this place?"

He put down an intricate bit of wiring and looked around. "Uhh, kinda. Shouldn't there be a lathe over there?" he asked, pointing to one side.

"No, that was part of Henry's equipment. You shared a lab in the old Sanctuary but he has his own lab now. Do you know who I am?"

Nikola cocked his head to one side. "You do look a little familiar. I take it we've met?"

"Oh, dear. Nikola, my name is Helen Magnus. We've known each other for over a century, and we have a child together. Do you remember him?"

"A child- you and me? No, I don't have any children . . . wait, you're joking aren't you? You are definitely not over a century old, and neither am I. But . . ." Nikola looked around the lab again.

"Bloody hell. You really don't remember." _But you are definitely Nikola; no electrical being could imitate your personality so well._ She held out her hand to him. "Come with me, I have a story to tell you."

Nikola approached her but didn't take her hand. "I don't believe we've been formally introduced, Miss Magnus, although you apparently know my name and use it rather freely."

"I assure you, Mr. Tesla, we have been formally introduced and have shared a great number of experiences. Exactly what do you remember?"

He just frowned, concentrating for a moment. Then he gave her a puzzled look. "That's odd, my memory is usually excellent, but I'm just getting little disconnected flashes, some fleeting images, a few words. What's wrong with me? Did you do this to me?"

"No. Come with me to my office, we can be comfortable and I'll explain." Nikola looked back at the lab, unsure. Helen added, "I have a nice Madeira I think you'll enjoy."

He made a face and said, "It's not that American stuff, is it?"

"No, it's from Spain." _He really is confused_, Helen thought. _He's liked American wines for decades. It was just in the early 1900's when their wine industry was in its infancy that he had all his wine imported from Europe._

"Very well, I'll try it," Nikola conceded.

In Helen's office, she got him settled with the wine and tapped out a quick E-Mail to Will and Henry telling them that Nikola was awake and with her.

She spent the rest of the morning telling Nikola the very long tale of their experiences together. She didn't go into a lot of detail, and there were stretches of time when they weren't together and she had no idea what he'd been doing. Helen watched his face as she explained about the Source Blood and how he'd become a vampire and saw just total disbelief, but that didn't bother her. Eventually his own body would tell him the truth about that.

They finished the bottle of wine, but Helen declined to open a second. Wine for breakfast wasn't her favorite start to the day but as a lure for Nikola she was pleased it still worked.

Her explanation of his current confused condition and how it had come about was as detailed as she could make it. He was the only one who really knew what had happened to him, and she was hoping her words would jog his memory. But he looked just as blank during her rendition as he had through the rest of her narrative.

Finally he just shook his head. "You seem to be sincere in all this, and some of it seems to match with some of the images I do remember, but the whole thing just seems so improbable."

"I think I can prove some of it. Come with me." Helen led him to their suite and handed him his cell phone.

"Look at the pictures; you took them yourself."

Nikola just stared at the device in his hand until she showed him how it worked. He viewed picture after picture of him and Danny, him and Helen, and the three of them. He slowly sat down in a chair and continued flipping through the photos.

"I . . . this is incredible," he finally said. "How does this thing work?"

"You don't remember how a cell phone works?"

"A cell phone," he repeated after her. "There's sound transmission too?"

"You don't remember what a cell phone is?"

He just shook his head. "The computer? Jet aircraft?" More head shaking. "What technology do you remember?"

"Uh, I was working with electricity."

"Alternating current."

"Yes, that fool Edison wants his idea of direct current to prevail, but of course it is completely impractical but he won't admit it. I remember that!" Nikola looked at her, quite pleased with recalling something from his past.

He looked at the device in his hand. "But this is so advanced, so far from what I was doing . . . perhaps, more time really has passed than I realized." He looked up at her, stricken.

Helen felt sorry for him; he had been in the forefront of technological advances for so long that she understood he must be feeling quite lost right now. "It will be all right, Nikola. Sometimes memories take a little time to come back after a shock. The fact that you remember some things tells me your memories are still there, but they may be jumbled or inaccessible right now. It may just take a little time for you to get them back."

Nodding, Nikola looked at the photos again. "So this little one really is mine?"

"Yes, he's your son. We named him Daniel Tesla, after your brother Dane, and we call him Danny."

"I have a brother too?"

Helen shook her head. "Remember, a great deal of time has passed. I'm afraid you've outlived all of your family."

"Oh. Could I meet little Daniel?"

"Of course. He's just down the hall, I'll fetch him." Helen brought Danny back to their suite to see his father. Nikola was very tentative at first, but when Danny latched his tiny hand around one of Nikola's fingers she could see the vampire was pleased.

"He's a very good-looking boy, isn't he?"

"Extremely," Helen agreed, smiling.

Nikola just nodded, and gently disengaged his finger. "I know little about babies; at least I don't remember knowing much. I think I should spend some time alone, if that's all right. I need to meditate, think on what you have said, and catch up," he added holding up the cell phone.

Helen nodded her understanding. "I'll have your things moved into your old suite until you're ready to move back here with me."

"And the lab is mine too?"

"Yes, of course, and Henry can help you come up to speed on the technology you don't remember."

Nikola nodded and said, "Thank you. You will need to introduce me to this Henry, I am eager to begin. And please show me where I will sleep."

Helen said "Of course," and began setting up the new living arrangement.

Well at least Nikola was alive. If he wasn't quite her Nikola, he would be again, she was almost sure. Time was something they had a lot of, and she could wait.

A/N: I've spent the last month editing my book, "The Lady and the Prince", but it's gone to layout now so I have time to play with Sanctuary again. Thanks for your patience.


	10. Chapter 10

Henry wasn't at all sure what he was supposed to do. Magnus had just told him to bring the vampire up to date on technology, but explaining a century of progress to someone from the steam age seemed an impossible task.

Especially when that someone was a certain arrogant, sarcastic vampire. But there was an upside too. Tesla had been imperious and condescending to Henry, but now the HAP had the upper hand and was looking forward to giving back a little of what he'd gotten.

Henry walked down the hall in a good mood. And why not? He had the most beautiful wife and daughter anywhere, he'd made level thirty-two in Robot Killer Platoon last night, and this morning he was going to be explaining the ABC's of technology to memory-deficient Tesla; all was right with his world.

Until he walked into Tesla's lab.

The usually neat, well-ordered workplace was in a state he'd never seen before. There were mounds of pieces of equipment and machinery everywhere. Was that the remains of an automobile engine on the floor?

Henry spotted Tesla finally amid the clutter. The vampire noticed him when he looked up, put down the inner workings of- something- and picked up a Supercola and chugged it. Henry could only stare.

"You must be Henry," Nikola said. He waved his hand negligently at a corner of the lab. "You can start over there."

"Start over there doing what? What are you doing? What is all this?" What Henry really wanted to ask was why Tesla was drinking soda, but first things first.

"I remember you, at least a little. You are Henry, my lab assistant. So start assisting. Put these things back together and get them out of my way."

"Dude, what are you doing? The Doc sent me here to bring you up to speed on tech, and I'm not your lab assistant." Henry spied the remains of a cell phone. "Oh, no, no, no." He checked his pocket, and with relief pulled out his own. "Where did you get that? In fact, where did you get all this stuff?"

Tesla glanced at where Henry was pointing and just shrugged and said, "I found it. And if you have been assigned to me, then you are my assistant so please begin removing these things I am done with. If you cannot reassemble them quickly, then box each item and work on them later."

Henry approached Nikola. "Just wait a minute. What is going on with you? You're acting weird. You never make a mess out of your lab and why are you drinking that stuff? In all the years I've known you I've never seen you drink soda. And you called me Henry."

"But that's your name, right?"

"Well yeah, but you always say it in a foreign language or just call me something insulting like 'wolf boy'."

Nikola put down the handful of wiring he'd been looking at. "You are aware of what happened to me with the electrical creatures?"

Henry nodded and Nikola went on "Helen explained what occurred, and I think when my memories were reloaded into my mind I was not present to insure everything went back properly. The memories went in haphazardly, overlaying and intersplicing with my original memories. My mind is full of discontinuities. A tiny bit of one memory suddenly jumps to a flash of something else entirely that merges with a third memory. My understanding hasn't changed. I still speak twelve languages and I comprehend mathematical and scientific principles, but all the applications are a confused jumble in my head."

"So you sort of recognize me, but don't have any real memory of doing stuff together?"

"Yes, I have your image in my head, but I do not know you. You seem to catch on quickly. Now get to work."

"Okay, but I'm going to need help with the slant six over there."

"Then get someone to help you, Heinrich."

Henry twitched a little, realizing telling Tesla about his name had been a mistake but went to get some boxes and some help, although not with the engine. Tesla could disassemble things faster than anyone could rebuild them, he needed Magnus.

But she wasn't in her office. Henry found her in her suite with her son.

"Morning, Doc. I need a little help with Tesla."

"Is he having difficulty understanding your instruction?"

"No, that's not it. He's kind of instructing himself."

"Oh. Well, then I'm sure you have other things you can do."

"Yeah, about that. He's sort of taking apart every piece of tech he can get his hands on and expects me to put Humpty back together again."

"Well I'm sure that if he takes a few things apart . . ."

"It's not a few things it's everything he can get his hands on. He's 'finding' things and I don't know what all he has, he could have disassembled our EM shield or perimeter monitoring system by now. And he's drinking _cola._"

Alarmed, Helen said "Nikola is . . . are you sure it's not a mixed drink?"

"Nope, straight out of the can."

Helen seemed at a loss for words so Henry went on to tell her the vampire's explanation of his memory problems.

Helen considered for a moment and then said, "All right, I'll talk to him. Check our security first, and if you find any deficiencies let me know immediately. Perhaps Erica can assist reassembling the most critical objects he's taken apart."

"Great idea; she misses getting her hands into tech when she spends so much time with the babies, and I can bring her boxes of the stuff."

Helen left Danny with Erica and explained what was going on. Erica was pleased at the prospect of having physical work she could do in her suite. While she often worked on the computer assisting with security monitoring, reassembling electronic and mechanical systems would be a new challenge.

Magnus knew what to expect when she went to Nikola's lab, but it was still something of a shock to see the state it was in. Even more shocking, the vampire was not only drinking cola, he was eating a sandwich.

"Nikola, are you sure you should be consuming that?" she asked, concerned.

"Why not? I got hungry. The caffeine keeps me going, but eventually I have to eat, don't I?"

Helen just shook her head a little. His vampire digestion really couldn't handle solid food, but apparently he was going to have to relearn that the hard way.

"I believe I mentioned that you are a vampire. Your normal fare is blood, and your preferred beverage is wine although you do occasionally have a cup of coffee or tea. But that's not what I've come to talk to you about."

Nikola took another bite of sandwich and just chewed and waited.

"You cannot simply go around taking things and disassembling them. We have some critical pieces of equipment that could put us all at risk if they are not functioning properly."

Nikola nodded, and between bites said, "Yeah, I checked out the systems on the computer. Don't worry, I just played around a bit with the back-ups for a while and then put them back in place."

Helen brightened a bit. "So you remember your computer skills?"

The vampire shrugged. "Not much, but computers are logical so they're not difficult to figure out. If I didn't know what key to hit I just tried different things until it did what I wanted. Programming looks a little more complicated, I'll need to spend some time on that."

"Why don't you? It will take some time to clean up this," she said, indicating the mounds of materials. "So if you could find something else to do for a few days it would be helpful."

Nikola didn't look too thrilled with the idea, but he'd finished his sandwich and was starting to look a little green anyway. He put a hand on his abdomen and said "I don't feel so good."

"The bathroom is that way."

Nikola nodded and then suddenly ran for it. Helen heard him vomiting, the toilet flush, and then water running. He came out looking a little pale.

He asked, "You think wine would settle my stomach?"

"Quite sure of it. Come with me."

She showed him the wine cellar and selected a dry wine for him. Then she led him to the library, got him settled with a stack of physics books, and left him sipping and reading. _That should keep him out of trouble for a little while_, she thought.

But when she went back in late afternoon, he wasn't there. The empty wine bottle and dirty glass sat making rings on a table, and all the books had been re-shelved. Helen hurried back to Nikola's lab but he wasn't there either. Henry looked up from amid a stack of boxes and parts and said, "Hey, Doc."

"How are you coming?"

"Good; not getting anything else done, but I've already shipped a dozen boxes up to Erica."

"Have you seen Nikola?"

"Nope, and I can't say I'm sorry. Why, did you lose him?"

"Sort of, but I'm sure he hasn't gone far." Helen went back to her search. Usually Nikola was easy to find, he had his favorite haunts and rarely wandered, but now he was unpredictable.

She finally found him on the roof, surrounded by his pigeons. He'd taken off his jacket and vest and draped them over a chair, and scattered feed for his birds. He was sitting cross-legged on the roof itself, his eyes closed, his hands resting palm up on his knees with his middle fingers and thumbs touching. Pigeons strutted and pecked around him, occasionally perching on him as if he were a statue.

Nikola's breathing was slow and even, but Helen doubted he had missed hearing her approach. "Nikola?" she said quietly.

His eyes opened and he turned his head and smiled at her. Then he got up and brushed himself off before saying "Good afternoon, Helen."

"Good afternoon. I was concerned when I didn't find you in the library."

Nikola dressed as he said, "It seems I've read all those books before. Skimming them helped me recall them. Then I remembered my feathered friends up here, although I wasn't sure they would still be here."

"I wouldn't let them starve. Speaking of which, how are you feeling?"

Nikola looked troubled. "Hungry. I've been attempting to process your statement that I am a vampire, but there's no objective proof."

"You can't keep solid food down, that seems to have been proven earlier today."

"An upset stomach doesn't make me a blood-drinking monster."

"You're not a monster, Nikola. You've never been a monster; out of control on occasion, but your intentions have always been good."

"So I'm a nice vampire? That seems contradictory."

"Well if it helps, I'm a teeny bit vampire too. When we injected the Source Blood serum I got the vampiric extended life span. You got the whole package I'm afraid."

He shook his head. "I know I'm not exactly human. My lifespan proves that, assuming what I've seen on the computer about the civilization on the surface isn't some big hoax. But I can't be a vampire; I haven't any fangs to drink blood with. I would have starved to death a long time ago."

"Your fangs are retractable, as are your claws."

"Oh, I have claws too? How nice. Really Helen, what kind of fool do you take me for? Yes, I have some memory problems but you don't expect me to believe all this nonsense, do you?"

"It's not nonsense, Nikola, and somewhere inside you you know that. Don't you remember anything about the Source Blood, John, James, and Nigel?"

Nikola shrugged. "I have brief images of a lot of people, but that doesn't tell me who they are or my relationship with them. I don't remember anything about drinking blood, although I have gotten a few flashes of you firing a gun at me."

"Our relationship has had its ups and downs. As a vampire you heal very quickly, shooting you doesn't do any significant harm. And as far as memories of drinking blood, well you've been doing it for a very long time, the memories must be there."

"So you say, but so far food hasn't been significant enough to surface in my mind. One thing I can't figure out is what you gain by convincing me of this fantasy. Is it just to keep me here so you can profit by my inventions? I may not remember everything I've done but several of the objects I disassembled were very, very familiar. I suppose some of my creations could be valuable."

"Nikola, I'm a wealthy woman, I don't need to trap you here for any monetary reason. In fact, I pay you quite well."

"Then what's the point? Am I just some sort of Abnormal creature in your collection?"

"You are not a creature in my collection! You are my friend and my lover. And this isn't a _collection_, it's a Sanctuary."

Nikola shook his head. "Call it whatever you want, I'm not a vampire. I may have some sort of medical issue, but for that I need to see a doctor."

"I am a doctor."

"Ah, yes, but if you don't mind I would prefer someone more objective."

"Very well. I can make an appointment for you with . . ."

"I'll choose my own doctor, thank you anyway."

"Nikola, that may seem to be the appropriate action to you, and I certainly won't stop you if you want to seek medical advice, but be careful. The surface world is not prepared to accept a vampire, you would be in danger if your condition were known. But remember that you are safe and accepted here and that I love you and will always welcome you."

"I'll be leaving in the morning."

Helen pleaded with him. "Then at least let me give you a blood transfusion before you go. It's not the ideal way for you to take in sustenance, but it will stave off the worst of your hunger and give you time to learn the truth."

"I do intend to learn the truth. Sorry, Helen but I won't give you the opportunity to drug me or something."

"And what of your son? Are you just going to abandon him?"

"I don't even know if he is my son. I remember some moments with you but not all of them were pleasant and I have no memories of him. It would take a DNA test to convince me, and only if I could run it myself, which at the moment isn't possible."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't remember how to do it! Satisfied?"

"No, not in the least. What about all the photos I showed you? Don't they mean anything?"

"I don't know what they mean. Maybe I was babysitting and bored. Or maybe they're not real. I found this program called Fotofix that you could have used to create them."

"I didn't create those pictures, Nikola, and I'm worried about you. I don't want you to lose control of your vampire side when you're among people who can't protect themselves. You wouldn't want that either. Please stay, at least until you understand yourself better."

"You're still insisting I'm a vampire?"

"It's the truth."

Nikola just shook his head. "Goodbye, Doctor Magnus. I'll be leaving very early tomorrow so we won't see each other." He walked off the roof to the stairway down.

Helen just stood, stunned and watched him go. How had everything gone sideways like that? Would she ever see him again? Surely someday he had to regain his memory, surely he would be back, wouldn't he?

A/N: Irish-Coffee, :Kotah, and epichlexi, thank you for the reviews.


	11. Chapter 11

Will walked into the media room; he was almost sure he'd left his cell phone in there. He stopped abruptly at the sight before him.

"We've been robbed!" he said in amazement. "How? With all our security . . ."

All the electronics were gone- the screens, the games, the stereo, and his cell phone. This had to be reported immediately. Even though it was after normal work hours, he expected Magnus might still be in her office, but she wasn't.

He pounded on the door to her suite. Instead of the usual "Come in" she called out "Just a minute" and he waited impatiently. When she opened the door, he was momentarily too surprised to speak. Her eyes were red- had she been crying? That was so unlike her he was torn between asking her what was the matter and reporting the crime.

Will finally said, "The media room has been stripped; we've been robbed."

But she just nodded as if it were an everyday occurrence, and backed up leaving the door open for him to come in.

"What's going on?" he demanded to know.

"Nikola."

That one word explained a lot. "He took all the electronics? Why?"

"His memory is rather a confused mess, and he's trying to relearn everything by taking things apart."

"My cell phone! He took apart my cell phone? My life was in there!"

"Sorry Will, I would have stopped him if I'd known beforehand."

Will threw up his hands but then subsided. "All right, it's done. I assume you've got him under control now?"

Helen sat down. "Hardly. He doesn't believe he's a vampire, he doesn't believe Danny is his son, and he thinks I'm trying to keep him here for some nefarious reason."

Well that explained the reddened eyes and sad face. Too agitated to sit, Will paced and said, "Come on, there's lots of objective proof. Whatever else you can say about him, he is a scientist."

"I think what hurts the most is that he doesn't trust me. He knows there are ways to fake photos or DNA analysis and his memory is very selective right now. He doesn't remember the Five, he does remember me shooting him a time or two."

"So, what, he's just wandering around loose in the Sanctuary doing God knows what?"

Helen shook her head. "He's leaving. He plans to see a doctor for his condition as if it's a case of the flu or something."

"This is ridiculous. He can't go out in the general population out of control, and the Magnus I know wouldn't allow that to happen."

She looked up at him. "What can I do? Shall I chain him in the basement? Lock him up in a cage? I love Nikola; I can't do something like that to him."

"You can't do nothing either. Your whole life has been spent mediating between humans and Abnormals, making sure both sides stay safe. You can't just abandon that mission, especially when it involves someone you love. He's in as much danger going out not understanding his own nature as the humans he'll be associating with."

Helen looked thoughtful, and then her expression changed to one of determination. "You're right, Will, I can't allow this to happen whatever it costs me personally."

"How can I help?"

"Tell Henry to shut down the spheres; that will leave Nikola's gate the only easy way out of here, and I'll be waiting for him there."

"Now you're talkin'," Will said over his shoulder as he went out to convey her message to the HAP.

Helen got her gun; not the little one that fit in her waistband, but the big .45 revolver she kept in her nightstand. If Nikola didn't believe he was a vampire, he might be more tractable when she pointed it at him. She checked to make sure it was loaded and headed for the gate room.

It was still early and she expected she would have to wait, but she'd rather wait than miss him. Undoubtedly he would head for New York, if he had any clear memories of places he had been that was the most likely since he'd lived there so many years. She absolutely must not let him get past her, not with millions of people available in his old familiar hunting ground.

Tesla planned to use the gate. He'd found his control unit in the things delivered to his old rooms and spent time studying it. Eventually he was able to separate out a few flashes of memory that pertained to it and while he wasn't entirely sure how it worked he knew it did.

He didn't recognize all the symbols on the buttons; the drop of red liquid was particularly confusing. But the Statue of Liberty and Big Ben were clear destinations. New York or London? He would be less remarkable in New York with his North American accent than in the British capital, but he'd had friends in London, hadn't he? Well, he would decide when he got to the gate.

Nikola packed carefully. There was a limit to how much he could take. One large rolling suitcase of clothes and personal items and a shoulder bag with his laptop was enough. His main regret was leaving that lovely laboratory. Well, there were other labs, and he'd figured out where his funds were stashed so he wasn't poor. He could live quite well while he recovered his health and decided what to do.

He stopped off at his lab on the way to the gate. He had the idea that he'd had some very expensive materials there, and checking he found actinium and platinum. He loaded the small amounts into his pockets; undoubtedly it would come in handy at some point and if it was in his lab it belonged to him, right?

Now where exactly was that gate? He told himself to go there and then started walking, thinking about things he could do with actinium and ignoring where he was going until he stopped at a door on the lower level. Good old subconscious - always had known more than he did. Nikola smiled and opened the door and was gratified to see the gate, but a little surprised to see Helen Magnus rising from where she'd been sitting on the gate platform.

"Helen, I thought we settled this."

"Not by half." She raised the big pistol and pointed it at his chest. "You're not leaving."

Nikola just shook his head, perplexed. "Why? We established it's not for monetary reasons unless you've been lying to me about your financial situation."

"Nikola, you're dangerous and I can't let you go. Once you remember and have yourself under control you can go where you like. Look, I brought you something."

She lobbed a small object at him and he quickly side-stepped and let it fall on the floor with a plop. It was just a small plastic bag with a dark liquid inside.

"That's whole blood, Nikola- antelope, one of your favorites. All you have to do is try it and I can put away this gun."

In response, Nikola took out his controller and turned on the gate. "I told you before I'm not giving you the chance to drug me. Now please step out of the way."

"Not a chance. Move forward and I shoot."

Nikola carefully set down his laptop and released the handle of his suitcase while keeping his feet still. He believed her entirely, but she was not going to stop him. He half raised his hands and said, "You're just going to shoot an unarmed man?"

"You have built-in weapons, and yes, if I have to. Either pick up the baggie and eat or turn around and walk back out that door."

Nikola shrugged as if agreeing and started to turn, but then leapt at her. She fired, getting off two shots before he hit her and they both tumbled back through the gate. He landed on top and wrested the gun away from her.

Tesla staggered to his feet and backed up with the gun pointing at Helen. She sat up more slowly and looked around, ignoring the gun.

"Nikola, where are we?"

His eyes flicked around seeing only rock dimly lit by a phosphorescent glow coming from some fuzzy fungi clinging to the walls.

"I don't know." He turned around in a quick circle while Magnus got to her feet and brushed herself off. "Where's the gate?" he asked. Then he looked down at his blood-stained vest and exclaimed, "Hey, you shot me!"

"Well I said I would." Helen looked around too, but saw nothing to indicate where they'd come through. "What did you have the controller set to?"

Nikola lowered the muzzle of the gun, letting it point at the floor. "I didn't, I only turned the gate on. You didn't give me a chance to select a destination." He unbuttoned his vest and shirt to check the wound and found only two pink marks that faded as he watched. "Well that's convenient, besides a long life I have the ability to heal," he said.

Helen approached him and Nikola raised the gun again. "Ah, ah, keep your distance."

"Fine, but I'm hardly going to overpower you, Nikola. Besides you don't like guns, but have it your way. We started out from an underground cavern and we still appear to be underground. I don't recognize this area, but we may not be too far from the Sanctuary. The only question is, which way do we go? Any ideas?"

"How would I know, I barely remember my own name much less this," he replied, gesturing around him with the gun.

"Careful how you wave that thing around. Nothing from your magnetic sense?"

"My what?"

"Never mind. But if you get a notion which way is north, let me know."

He gave her a "what are you trying to pull" look.

Helen chose a direction and started walking. "Well, come along, we won't get home just standing here."

He didn't follow her. "Wait a minute. Maybe we should stay here. Someone will come looking for us, right?"

"Nikola, your gate could have sent us literally anywhere in the world, and there's no way of knowing where from either end of an uncontrolled transport."

He shrugged and started to walk after her, playing with the gun in his hands. "My gate, huh? I invented it? That's pretty cool."

"You stole it from the Praxians."

"I'm sure I made significant improvements to the . . . who?"

"Praxis was an advanced underground city that was destroyed by Adam Worth."

"Oh. Well, then I guess I won't have to worry about a patent infringement suit. My gate transport system must be worth millions."

"Billions, but you can't patent it or advertise it, I'm afraid."

"Why not?"

"Because it would destabilize the world and I said so, and I'm your boss."

Nikola grimaced a little. He'd seen the funds transfers into his accounts from the Sanctuary, and couldn't really argue the point, but he said, "It's got to be a huge jump, technologically."

Helen smiled a little; he was still Nikola, fishing for a compliment. "It is, the Praxian technology involved deadly exposure to radiation, but you eliminated that problem. Only your genius could have accomplished such a radical leap forward."

"Exactly" he agreed, pleased with her praise and recognition of his abilities. He smiled for the next fifteen minutes.

They walked next to each other for a while. Eventually Helen just reached over and took the gun from his unresisting hands. He looked a little concerned, but she just put it back in her holster.

"You don't like guns, Nikola, and you've no real skill with them. If we run into something dangerous, it's better if I have it."

"Well okay, but you're not going to shoot me again, are you?"

"Not unless you do something to deserve it."

"You know getting shot hurts."

"Precisely. You're a vampire and it's one of the few ways I can get your undivided attention."

"I really wish you would stop saying that."

Helen didn't reply; they'd already had this conversation. They kept walking, but the rocks they walked past looked like all the other rocks, and she wasn't at all sure they weren't walking in circles. She put her hand on his arm and they stopped.

"Nikola, I don't think we're anywhere near the Sanctuary. We need to find water. I don't suppose you happen to have any food with you?"

"Not the way my digestion has been acting."

"Tools? Anything at all that might prove useful?"

The vampire pulled out a small bar of actinium from his left jacket pocket and one of platinum from his right. "I've got these, my wallet, and a pocket watch. That's it. What about you?"

"Aside from the gun I have a package of peanuts and one of trail mix. I wasn't planning on leaving the Sanctuary. I just missed breakfast so I brought snacks in case I got hungry waiting for you. Too bad one of us didn't pick up the unit of blood. What about the gate controller?"

Nikola didn't protest the blood comment; they'd already had that conversation. He only said, "I think I dropped it when you shot me."

"Cell phone?"

"Outer pocket in my suitcase." At her look of dismay he added, "Who would I call?"

Helen nodded her understanding. "At least the temperature is comfortable, which makes me think we're not overly deep underground nor very near the surface, but that's only a guess."

"We could wander around down here forever," he said.

"No, not forever. Neither of us can survive without food and water. If we do find water we need to stay near it if we can, perhaps follow it somewhere."

"Agreed, I'm already thirsty as well as hungry."

Helen looked at him a little alarmed. He might not believe he was a vampire, but eventually hunger and thirst would force him to change into vampire mode. And she was the only source of food. If he was his normal self she would allow him some blood, her body would replace it assuming they found water. But if he only changed in crisis mode, then he wouldn't be able to control himself and he might well kill her. He didn't remember their relationship; he might not even care very much as long as he could get a good feed from her.

She had the gun, but that wouldn't necessarily stop him even if she shot him in the head. As soon as he healed he would be even more desperate after losing blood and having to heal, so shooting him would be a bad idea even if he attacked her. Besides she only had four bullets left, she hadn't brought any extras assuming six shots would be enough to stop him. They needed to find water, and Nikola needed to remember he was a vampire so he would have some conscious control over his impulses.

"Let's keep moving," Helen said. "I'll tell you some stories of our days together. We have a lot of time, we might as well work on your memory."

Nikola just shrugged and they started off again.

A/N: Irish-Coffee and epichlexi, thank you for the reviews.


	12. Chapter 12

"It's my fault," Will said.

"Dude, it is not your fault," Henry said forcefully. "The Doc made the decision to confront Tesla, all you did was give her your best advice."

The two men were in the Sanctuary gate room. Tesla's suitcase and computer case were still sitting between the door and the gate platform, and spattered drops of dried blood started halfway up the platform and ended at the oval of the gate.

Will had the vampire's gate controller in his hand. It had more buttons that either of theirs and they'd checked every other gate, trying to find where Magnus and Tesla had gone. But the other gate rooms were all empty and none had blood on the floor.

Will just shook his head and wandered around the room. "They went through the gate, that's the only possibility."

"Right. The security feed shows Magnus coming in the room, and then later Tesla."

"And we can see her when he opens the door. Then the door closes and . . ."

"Two shots are fired but there are no bullets in the room and there's blood, so . . ."

"She shot him, which is no big deal, right?"

Henry shrugged. "I don't know. If he's as confused as she said then who knows, he might have taken it the wrong way."

"But why would they both go through the gate and leave his controller behind? She didn't have hers, it's still in her office."

"And why wipe up the blood on the other side so we can't tell where they went?"

Neither had an answer to that question. They stood looking at the room, hoping for inspiration.

Finally Will said, "The only logical conclusion is that at least one of them didn't want us to find them. If they were honeymooning or something maybe they might have run off on impulse, but Magnus would never abandon her son, especially with his father not around either."

"She knows Erica and I will take care of Danny like he was our own, but you're right, the Doc wouldn't leave him without a lot of fussing and worrying and assurances she'd be right back."

Will looked grim. "So Magnus didn't go willingly."

Henry shook his head. "No. Tesla must have forced her."

"And we have no idea why, or what his mental state is."

"From the state of his lab, Drac is totally loony tunes."

Will stopped pacing. "Is there any way you can track where this gate has opened in the last 24 hours? We know where we went; if it opened someplace twice we would have a clue at least where to start looking."

Henry replied sadly, "I wouldn't even know where to start. This thing isn't controlled by computer, everything is internal, and it's that weird Praxian tech."

"Then we'll put out a 'Be on the lookout' alert to the whole Sanctuary network. Magnus will find a way to get in touch, somehow."

The HAP nodded agreement. "Yeah, she's real resourceful, she'll find a way to alert us. I'll set up a monitoring program on all wavelengths."

"Good. I'll start handling the day-to-day stuff she usually does and we'll keep the Sanctuary running. Why don't you go through Tesla's suitcase and laptop and see if he left any clues to where he was headed."

"Okay, but you know he doesn't write stuff down so it's probably a waste of time."

"That was the old Tesla. The current one might do anything."

"Don't remind me, I'm worried enough as it is."

/

"Why does this look familiar?" Nikola asked as they wended their way down a narrow passageway.

"A long narrow dark place? We've been in a few before."

Nikola stopped walking and faced her. "I have this strange urge to find a broom closet."

Helen laughed. "Same old Nikola." He looked confused and she just shook her head and continued on. She was not about to explain to him why he wanted a broom closet if he didn't remember.

The passageway ended in a large cavern, the floor covered with stalactites and stalagmites hanging from the ceiling, in some cases merging into columns and weird formations. The light was very dim; the fungi that gave it off didn't extend very far into the cavern.

Nikola said, "This looks like it's going to be a little tricky from here with no light. Maybe we should go back and take a different tunnel."

"I don't suppose your pocket watch has a luminous dial or you happen to have a flashlight on a keychain or something?" Helen asked hopefully.

"Sorry, no. The footing looks a little rough, but at least if this is limestone the chances are good there's water nearby."

"Let's go forward slowly and look for water. If we find some we can at least hydrate here before deciding our next move."

They moved slowly into the cavern, Nikola leading the way. Helen had already noticed his eyes changing to vampire mode to take in every bit of light, but she didn't have a mirror to show him the inhuman look.

He placed his feet carefully on the uneven slanting surface and she followed closely trying to walk in his steps even though she could barely make him out, and the further they went the less she was able to see. Finally she reached out and took hold of his belt. He glanced back at her but didn't protest her grasp on him.

His head swiveled left and he asked, "Do you hear that?"

"No, what?"

He didn't answer but turned left and she followed. After a few steps she heard it too, a faint plinking sound- dripping water? A few more careful meters and he stopped and knelt down and she knelt beside him.

Nikola quietly said, "Let me check this first; it looks clear, but that doesn't necessarily make it water or drinkable." Helen wasn't going to argue the point since she could barely discern that there was a liquid in front of them. If it were highly acidic or alkaline he would quickly recover from a dose of it whereas she might not.

He put a finger in, then his hand and lifted a little in his palm and sniffed it. He touched it with his tongue, and said, "It's good." They both took double handfuls and drank.

Helen got out her bag of peanuts and ate. With water available the saltiness wouldn't cause her any increase in thirst that she couldn't satisfy.

In between nibbling nuts she suggested, "Let's rest here a bit. It's dark enough we could catch a nap and then drink again when we waken."

"You're tired?"

"Yes, aren't you?"

"A little, but mostly hungry and I'm afraid peanuts wouldn't stay down."

There was silence while she munched. When she had finished she said, "I know you don't believe it, but you are a vampire. You can extend your fangs and you have feeders that are very sharp and go out even farther. And while you usually drink animal blood and plasma, human works as well."

"The whole idea of drinking blood of any kind is just yucky. I know there are people in the world who drink cattle blood mixed with milk, but there are people who eat bugs too, and I'm not one of them."

Helen ignored his comment; she wanted to say this now while they were both calm and feeling better from the water. "When you realize I'm right, I'm willing to feed you, Nikola. You've taken blood from me before, and you don't require a great deal, generally less than I can safely give although right now your needs may be greater since you haven't fed for days."

"That's very nice of you, but I don't think I'll be taking you up on your offer. You said you were a little bit vampire; do you have the urge to drink some of my blood?"

"No, my digestion is still quite human."

"Then let's stop discussing blood drinking. Why don't we try to get some sleep. Here." She heard the rustle of cloth and Nikola laid his suit coat on the rock beneath them for her. His memory might be spotty but he was still a gentleman.

They settled down, but then Nikola sat up, unbuttoned his vest and shirt, and started rooting around. Helen could barely see him and wondered what in the world he was doing until he showed her the two lead slugs that his body had expelled when he'd healed. They'd fallen inside his shirt and he hadn't noticed until he laid down on them.

Helen wasn't sure she would be able to sleep and his jacket seemed lumpier than the rock underneath. But once she had removed the chunks of metal from the pockets she found his scent on the cloth comforting and she quickly dozed off. When she woke she had no idea how much time had passed, but she sensed she was alone.

"Nikola?" she called softly. When there was no answer she called again louder, and this time he answered from the far side of the cavern and she heard him coming toward her.

When he reached her he stopped and she heard him drink from the pool again. Then he said, "I checked out the rest of this cavern. We don't have to choose which way to go, the only way out is the way in."

She drank too and Nikola put on his coat and refilled the pockets. Then they backtracked out of the cave and moved slowly down the tunnel looking for another way to go. Eventually they found a slit in the rock that looked big enough for them to push through. Nikola was sure he could discern a faint light at the other end and slid into the narrow passage with Helen following.

On the other side the slit gradually widened until it turned into another tunnel, although very uneven. The lighting was dim and they had to move slowly, climbing what they soon found to be a jagged surface sloping up.

They came to a wider flatter area and stopped to rest. While they rested Helen asked, "How's your memory?"

"I've got my childhood straightened out and most of my school years, except Oxford. I'm having difficulty sorting fantasy from reality."

"If it involves strange beings, invisibility, and teleportation then it's not fantasy, Nikola. Those things really happened."

"So you say. Do you have any of the trail mix left?"

"Yes, but you can't have any, it will only upset your stomach again."

"My stomach is feeling fine, just really, really empty. Give."

"I said no, Nikola."

"Come on, Helen, don't be greedy."

"I'm not giving you the only food I have so you can vomit it back up."

They were both sitting and he leaned toward her, reaching with his hand to grab her but she scrambled back and he missed. He was on all fours coming at her and she saw his eyes go fully vampire and his mouth open exposing the tips of his fangs. Helen tried to divert his attention to his physical change.

"Nikola! You're changing, your fangs are showing," she said as she continued to move away from him, unsure of his mental state. But she was sure he was no longer after her trail mix.

He just growled his answer and lunged at her. She kicked him in the face as hard as she could, which slowed him enough to give her time to get to her feet. Her instinct was to run, but she knew that would only trigger a prey reaction from him. She drew her gun.

"Nikola, stop, calm down. I told you I would give you blood, but you need to be calm first."

He was on his feet too, rubbing his face where she'd kicked him, even though it had already healed. But there was no recognition in his eyes, no humanity. It was like the first time he'd changed except then he hadn't known what to do. Now his body knew exactly how to take down an animal and feed, and she was very afraid that was how he was seeing her, as an animal to feed on and nothing more.

"You're not just any vampire, Nikola, you're the King of the Vampires. Do you remember that?" She didn't really want the King back, but Nikola being an arrogant ass was preferable to him being a wild animal.

Nothing changed in his eyes. He moved toward her slowly, stalking her, and she moved back at the same pace, her gun trained on him. She tried again, hoping to call back his human side.

"You're only half vampire. You said you remember your childhood. Do you remember Croatia? Your father the priest, your brilliant uneducated mother, your sisters?"

He stopped advancing and looked down, thinking and trying to remember and then suddenly noticing the claws on his hands. He held them up and examined them, horrified.

"That's right, you are a vampire, but we love each other and you would never hurt me, at least not while in your right mind."

He moaned a little and looked back at her, his face contorted with pain and indecision. "No" he said, and then "No, I'm not a monster, I'm not."

"Of course you're not. You're . . . shall we say, not average? But then you never were and I love you just the way you are." Helen holstered her gun and opened her arms to him.

He sobbed once and fell into her arms, whispering, "I'm not . . . I can't . . ."

"Shh, relax. Everything is fine, you just need to feed."

He backed up and shook his head. "I'll hurt you. I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't." Helen rolled up a sleeve and offered him her arm. "You know how to do this, Nikola."

He shook his head again, more sharply this time, and his vampire characteristics faded out of sight except for his eyes. "No . . . maybe . . . I don't know." Nikola walked past up the tunnel and turned back to her. "Let's get out of here. I really want to get out of here right now."

Helen nodded and said, "So do I, but are you sure . . ."

She didn't finish the sentence; he had already turned away and was picking his way up the tunnel. Helen followed.

A/N: Jaydee B Bailey, epichlexi, thank you for the reviews.


	13. Chapter 13

Helen followed Nikola as the tunnel narrowed and became rougher until they were climbing at a sixty degree angle in near darkness. But she could see light beyond him that encouraged them both.

But it wasn't daylight; it was weaker and faintly bluish. When she caught up to him he was standing in a tunnel that was wide, rectangular and far smoother than anything natural. The light was coming from a half globe crystal on the wall.

Nikola approached and examined it cautiously.

"Is it Praxian?" Helen asked.

"I'm not sure. The technology looks similar, but this is far more primitive than any Praxian tech I've seen." He tapped the crystal gently, but not gently enough. It cracked, and the light went out. But they still weren't in darkness, there was another half globe fifty feet down the tunnel glowing faintly in one direction, but darkness in the other.

"Don't tap any more of them, Nikola, we need to see where we're going."

"Yeah, they're really old. Wait a minute." He went down the tunnel in the dark direction and she could hear him stop, and then come back.

"There are globes down that way too, but they aren't working."

"Well this must lead somewhere and we can always retrace our steps."

"Agreed, we might as well try the lighted way first."

They followed the tunnel finding about half the globes still working to some extent, although many were throwing only a faint light. But even in between working half globes the tunnel was smooth enough they could walk fairly confidently with just a hand on the wall.

Helen lagged back and finished her trail mix while Nikola was focused on the tunnel and where it might lead. No sense leaving temptation in his way.

The tunnel ended at a high platform in a huge cavern with a ramp leading down along a wall to the left. The cavern was well lit with many of the half globes, even with only some of them working.

Below them they could see the ruins of a city. Nikola said, "That's not Praxis, is it? I know it was destroyed but this doesn't look like the map."

"No, it's not. The architecture is quite different. Notice the broken columns . . ."

"And the statuary and fountains . . ."

"This shows Greco-Roman influences."

"It looks old," Nikola agreed. "I wonder if it was influenced by Greece or Rome, or if Greece and Rome were influenced by whoever built this?"

"Either way would mean access to the surface. Do you think it's an old vampire city?"

"Possible I suppose, but unless we find writing or something distinctive there's no way to know.

"But there once was undoubtedly a nearby source of both food and water," Helen said and then went silent. She suddenly reached out and touched his arm and pointed down into the jumble of stone below with her other hand. Quietly she said, "I saw movement."

They both watched, but saw nothing moving in the ruins. Just as quietly Nikola asked, "Do you think someone might still be living here?"

"Doubtful. It could have been an animal or just something succumbing to gravity." She put her hand on the grip of her pistol and added, "Let's go slowly and see if we can find water."

Nikola went first down the ramp; vampire or not, he healed quickly so it only made sense for him to lead. Down in the jumble of stones and partial walls it was difficult to see where they were going or where they ought to go. They could look back and see the platform where they had stood, so at least they had some reference point.

Helen said softly, "Nikola, if there is an animal . . ."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a vampire and I can drink its blood. I don't suppose I can turn into a bat and fly over this mess?"

"No, sorry. But you also don't have to worry about sunlight, religious symbols, or garlic either."

"Good to know, if I do happen to be a vampire."

Helen kept most of her smile to herself. He was coming to accept it after seeing his claws and feeling the desire for her blood, but as usual he was being stubborn about admitting the tiny possibility that he had been wrong.

The first fountain they came to was dry and dusty, the center statuary broken and scattered in the basin. They moved on, Nikola heading in whatever direction seemed to lead toward lower ground. They eventually found a fountain with a small amount of green, scummy liquid in it that stank badly.

Nikola made a disgusted face at but Helen said, "Well at least we know there's life in this area."

"You call that life?"

"It's just algae, Nikola. I wouldn't want to eat it, but around Praxis there was a great variety of edible fungi. The vampire society cultivated similar types of mushrooms for their human slave population. If there's one type of life here there could be more and I wouldn't mind a bit of edible fungus about now."

They continued on, in some cases having to backtrack around areas too filled with rubble to get through easily. Nikola's head swiveled right and he stopped, holding up a hand. Helen stopped too and stood still.

"There's something moving over there," he whispered. Helen nodded; standing still and not talking, she could hear a faint intermittent scraping sound too. She gave him a hand signal and he went left while she went right, hoping to trap whatever it was between them.

But they met up again without finding anything. There was no wind underground, something had made that noise. Searching, they found a curved line in some fine dust that didn't look natural, but not whatever had made it.

Still on edge, they continued their search for water, finally finding a broken clay pipe with a constant trickle running out. Helen rescued a small heavy clay bowl with only a few chips along the edge and she filled it so they both could drink.

When Nikola finished he critiqued the bowl. "Lopsided and clumsy," was his judgment. "Mother's Day present do you think?"

That got a smile from Helen, which was his intent. He'd discovered he liked making her smile, and thought maybe he always had. "Perhaps," she said. "It certainly doesn't have the artistry of the statuary."

There was a loud crash behind them and they both spun in time to see the end of a rock fall from the ceiling smashing into the remains of the city below.

Nikola said, "Well that explains a lot."

"It looks like this area became unstable," Helen said, scanning the ceiling.

"And the population vamoosed."

"And we should too, but I'd like to find the source of the water . . ."

"Hopefully with a ceiling that won't fall on our heads, we neglected to bring our hardhats," Nikola added, eying the overarching rock too.

They trotted along the pipe that ran down an ancient street but then disappeared underground. They kept going in the same general direction but they both slowed and stopped. A plinth stood in the middle of an old intersection relatively whole with incised figures on the sides. Nothing was falling at the moment, so they took time to examine the writing.

"Doesn't look like either vampire or Praxian, exactly," Helen commented.

"Pre-Sumerian I think. Look here, doesn't that look a lot like the symbol for akhkharu?"

"Blood demon? They knew of vampires?"

"Apparently." Nikola moved to another side of the plinth and said, "Ugh, look at this."

Helen came around to view an incised drawing of a battle, a king in a chariot spearing a person with claws and fangs with similar figures under the chariot's wheels. She commented, "Well that actually wouldn't have killed him if he was a vampire. How much of this can you read?"

"Most of it, although I don't really recall studying this sort of language."

"The memory dump into your head included a great deal of Praxian information. What does it say?"

"Boring really, it's just all about this king and all the wonderful things he did, killing his enemies, conquering underground territory and the like. Ever heard of Memendizzar?

"Not really."

"Me neither. Let's get out of here."

They moved quickly through the rubble toward a wall of the cave, hoping to find an exit tunnel. As they approached the wall, Nikola said, "Hey, water." Helen could see a rippling glimmer of reflection of one of the glowing blue half globes. As they approached, Nikola heard a soft scrape to the side before he saw it, and by then he'd passed by. The eight-foot slender mottled-gray snake struck at Helen.

Its fangs sunk into her calf, and Nikola vamped and sprang at it. It released her and coiled for a strike at him. He leapt on it and the snake bit his arm but Nikola grabbed its body with his other hand. The snake let go but the vampire didn't. He whipped its head into a rock and while it was stunned, picked up a second rock and turned the head into a red mash.

He plunged his fangs into it and started to drink, but then jerked his head back and said, "Yuck!" He tossed it aside and turned to Helen. "I forgot, reptile blood is . . . Helen, are you all right? Did it get you?"

She was examining the wound. "Yes, but I think I was lucky, it looks like a dry bite. If that snake was venomous it didn't inject anything."

Nikola went down on one knee next to her to check her injury. But instead, he kept going down, collapsing at her feet.

"Bloody hell. Nikola?" But his eyes were closed and he didn't respond, and Helen realized he wasn't playing. She got his bitten arm out of his jacket and pushed up his shirt sleeve. There was blood and a thick, pale yellow liquid oozing from two fang marks, and they weren't healing. He hadn't been as lucky.

But there wasn't anything much she could do for him. Not only did she not have any medical equipment or supplies, she had no idea what sort of toxin the unfamiliar snake had injected. Nikola seemed to be breathing all right and wasn't showing any other symptoms other than being unconscious.

The one thing she could do was take care of her own injury. She limped to the water and found a narrow, cold, clear stream along the wall. She rinsed her leg and tore a strip off of the bottom of her blouse to bandage it. She dampened another strip and took it back to Nikola.

Helen gently wiped his face, hoping the cold cloth would wake him but it had no effect. She used it to clean around his injury as well as she could and tossed it away.

Being closer to the water would be convenient and the ceiling might be more stable near the wall as well. Moving him wouldn't be easy, but he was thin and she was a strong woman. He was heavier than he looked though, and she had to struggle to lift his upper body and drag him the rest of the way to the stream.

Once there, she spotted the remains of a small building and decided having some protection would make her feel better. She dragged him up and into three walls with a partial roof that enclosed perhaps eighty square feet. At least with walls on three sides she would only have to watch one direction for snakes and whatever else lived in the ruins; after all, the snakes must be dining on something and it most certainly wasn't algae.

Helen sat next to Nikola, waiting for him to either wake up or show additional symptoms. She leaned back against a wall and started to doze, jerking awake when she was almost asleep to check for snakes. After doing this twice, she finally did fall asleep.

She woke in alarm. She could hear something—not the whispery sound of snakes, but very quiet footsteps. Six small albino humanoids appeared across the space where the wall was missing, one carrying the dead snake and the dirty rag she had tossed away.

"Tahbors! Nikola, wake up." Helen shook him, but the vampire didn't stir. Helen pulled out her gun and fired as the six leapt at her, but her only shot wounded one in the leg before she was overwhelmed.

One took her gun, and two more took her by the arms and made her stand. More appeared and lifted Nikola and she stopped struggling and allowed the two holding her to lead her along behind them.

What did the Tahbors want? Where were they being taken? Not back into the city, but out along the stream, then over a metal bridge into another tunnel that slanted down deeper into the earth.


	14. Chapter 14

When they had turned to go deeper into the earth, Helen noticed light from the side looked different and turned her head back. Just for a moment she saw something that looked like daylight, and then the Tahbors hurried her around a corner and it was gone. They had her arms and swords at her back to keep her moving.

She tried to keep track of the turns and choices between tunnels the Tahbors made so she could find her way back. If that had been daylight she'd seen, it might be the only way out for a very long distance. But after an hour she gave up. They moved too quickly and had taken so many turns she just couldn't keep track.

They continued to carry Nikola in front of her, for which she was grateful. If he'd been behind, she would have had to keep checking to see if they were still together, and she could at least see his condition easily enough when they passed lighted areas. But his condition didn't change, he remained a limp burden.

They passed out of the smooth, blue-lit tunnels shortly, and moved into rougher, more natural areas. Light or absence of light didn't seem to bother the Tahbors much, but Helen was glad when the glowing fungus on the walls reappeared and she could see where they were going.

They went through several caverns and then turned into one that seemed to be a dead end. It was large and round, with a domed ceiling and what appeared to be a wide deep pit in the center. It was obviously a place they had used before, there were a number of objects in the room.

Several large cages were lined up along one curving wall, and there was some sort of contraption with pulleys and cords that passed across the twenty-foot wide hole, but much higher above the floor than even a tall man could reach, much less a short Tahbor.

Helen was hustled over toward the cages. She was taken close enough to the hole to realize it was very deep. She could see only blackness when she peered down. One of the Tahbors saw her looking, and paused them there on the edge.

It looked her straight in the eye and then lit something that might have been a match and tossed it in. Helen watched it go down, and down, and down until it disappeared. It was deep enough to be dangerous, not only to her but even to Nikola.

They continued on to the cages. In one, there was a jumble of clothing on the floor, and it wasn't until they were forcing her into the cage next to it she saw the skeletal remains in the clothing. She looked at it long enough to make a tentative identification of the skeleton as human. What were the Tahbors doing in this place? Would they leave her to starve to death in a cage as well?

But Nikola wasn't put into a cage. He was still completely limp, and they had taken him over to the end of the pulley contraption. Helen couldn't see very clearly what they were doing to him, there were quite a few of the Abnormals clustered around him.

Then she saw one Tahbor with his shirt, and another hold up a shoe. They were undressing him, but why?

Several of the Tahbors began pulling on a rope, and Helen saw there were two ropes fastened around Nikola's wrists, and they were raising him up. When he was half off of the floor, two other Tahbors pulled out long silvery needles and began jabbing them into the vampire.

None of the stabs were deep, but the needles stayed in wherever they were placed. They put about twenty into Nikola, mostly into his torso but a few in the muscles of his upper arms and thighs as well. He didn't react at all. Then they lifted him all the way until he was off the floor, his pale body swinging slightly on the ends of the ropes, his head hanging down.

Other lines were pulled, and Nikola was swung out over the abyss. When he reached the center, the lines were tied off and the Tahbors took out swords and waited.

Helen could only stare at the whole scenario. What was the point? She began to see streaks of red on the needles; Nikola was being bled. But the blood just dripped off into the hole. So they weren't gathering it, they weren't going to try to use it for anything.

Nikola finally stirred. Helen saw his eyes flutter and open. He lifted his head and looked around in confusion. He struggled a little, shifting his weight from one arm to the other, and then hung straight again. His breathing was shallow from hanging by his arms, his ribcage pulled up, his belly hollow. As a vampire he could manage with a reduced oxygen flow longer than a human, but not forever.

She called softly, "Nikola! Nikola, I'm over here."

The Tahbors didn't seem to care if they talked. Nikola's head swiveled and he focused on her. "What happened? Are you all right?" he called back quietly.

"I'm fine. I'll fill you in on what you missed later. How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know, just hanging around. You don't happen to know why, do you?"

"Sorry, not a clue."

Nikola looked down. "Ah. My blood seems to be attracting attention."

The Tahbors were tensely hovering near the lip of the pit, swords poised for action.

"Care to enlighten me?"

Nikola said, "Apparently I'm a worm on a hook, but those aren't fish coming up from down there. Lizards, really big lizards, they seem to be fine running right up the walls."

He nodded to a Tahbor on his left, and nearly directly in front of the Abnormal a long forked tongue flicked over the edge. The Tahbor leaped forward and brought its sword down hard on something. Helen saw a spray of blood.

Then there were more lizards and the Tahbors went to work killing them. The lizards were gray and their bodies were about the length of a tall man, with another man and a half in tail. Rows of sharp teeth were revealed when they opened their mouths and they came out of the pit one or two at a time.

Nikola took the opportunity while the Tahbors were engaged killing lizards to try to free himself. He pulled himself up until his hands were next to his head, and then transferred his weight solely to his right arm and grabbed the rope he was hanging from with his left. His fangs came out, but not his claws.

Nikola snapped off the rope on his left wrist and transferred his weight to his left arm and repeated the process with the rope on his right wrist. Free, but still hanging over the center of the pit, he climbed until he could get his feet on the rope as well.

Some of the Tahbors not engaged with the lizards saw him. Quick glances at each other, and they flicked out of sight. A few others realized the vampire was free and tried to abandon the killing of the lizards, but more of the creatures kept coming up out of the pit . But some of the Tahbors broke off the battle and readied themselves for an angry vampire.

Nikola swung on the rope and when the arc was high enough, let go and landed on solid ground. Four Tahbors rushed at him, but Nikola dodged their strikes and tossed them away, two into walls and one toward the pit. The fourth one landed in front of a lizard and was snapped up and swallowed.

The lizards seemed confused when Nikola's blood stopped falling into the pit, and they slowly refocused their attention on his moving form. They moved quickly, but only in short bursts, and then stopped and reoriented themselves for the next dash.

There were no more Tahbors in sight, but that meant little. They could disappear and reappear as they pleased. Nikola moved off to a spot near the wall and took a moment to pull needles out of himself as quickly as he could, a little spurt of blood accompanying each one. Helen could see cruel little barbs on the ends. But he couldn't easily reach all of them and the lizards had focused on him again. He ran for the cages while a lizard ended a dash where he had been, its tongue flicking out at the blood he'd left behind.

He was almost there when the Tahbors reappeared. Some went to work killing lizards, but a dozen went after Nikola. This time they didn't try to use swords; they just piled on him, using their weight to bear him down. He fully vamped and slashed at them with his claws, but that didn't stop them. Once he was subdued, they dragged him to the cages and pushed him into one on the other side of the skeleton and locked the door.

Helen was alarmed when Nikola didn't move at first. Then he groaned a little and rolled over, his back to her. Two of the needles showed only tips of silver protruding from his flesh. He'd fallen on them when the Tahbors had piled on, and their weight had driven the needles in deep.

"Nikola? Nikola!" Helen tried to reach through the cage between them. She could get her arm through the wire mesh, but it wasn't nearly long enough to reach through the intervening cage into his. She couldn't help him.

Nikola moved slowly, reaching around himself trying to get at the needles. He finally managed to grasp them and pull them out, red with his blood. Helen was relieved to see the holes heal, but dried and fresh blood streaked his skin, blood spotted the floor of the cage. He picked out three more needles that were still just hanging loosely in his back and sat up.

He was deathly pale. How much blood had he lost? He was still fully vamped and appeared a little dazed.

"Nikola, are you all right?"

"Yeah. I guess I really am a vampire, because god, I need blood."

Helen was pleased he'd finally reconciled himself to his nature, but they were in big trouble. They needed to get out of the cages and out of the hands of the Tahbors, and there were still lizards between them and the exit tunnel.

Helen examined the lock on her cage. It just seemed to require a simple key. "Can you manipulate the locks magnetically?"

"I can do that?"

"Definitely."

Nikola shifted and put his hand on the lock. "Sorry, as far as I can tell, no iron."

"Toss me a couple of those needles," she said.

He picked up a couple of the less bloody ones and reached them through the mesh of his own cage until she could take them from his hand in the cage between them. The Tahbors were ignoring them, killing a few remaining lizards, but most of the creatures had retreated back into the pit.

Helen and Nikola just watched. Inside the cages, they were at least safe from the lizards, if not the Tahbors. But once the lizards were either dead or back down the hole, the Tahbors just dragged the lizards they had killed out of the cavern and down the tunnel. None of them paid any attention to their two captives, apparently sure they were secure.

Helen waited. When the cavern seemed quiet and deserted, she pushed her hands out the front of her cage, a needle in each, and went to work picking the lock from the outside.

Nikola had lain down while the battle concluded. He just felt so tired, but now he was getting cold with no clothes. He sat up again and looked around the cavern, but couldn't spot what the Abnormals had done with them. There were clothes in the cage next to him, but they were dirty and someone had rotted in them. The fabric was probably rotted as well.

While Helen worked on the lock, he reached over and gingerly tried pulling some of the cloth to him. It just tore in his hand, shredding into small pieces. So much for modesty. Well, he wasn't entirely sorry, wearing clothes from a corpse didn't appeal overly much and he wouldn't die of being chilly, he would just be uncomfortable.

There was a click, and Helen opened her door. She crawled out, holding the needles as weapons and waiting for the Tahbors to appear and attack her. But the cavern remained silent, so perhaps they were really alone. She turned and started on the lock on Nikolas's cage.

Opening it was easier since it was the same type of lock as the one she'd just picked and she had it in just a few seconds. She scooped up the rest of the needles out of Nikola's cage as soon as he'd vacated. She didn't know what value they might be, but they had nothing now except the clothes on her back, and any tool might be useful. Helen stuck them in her pocket.

"Follow me," she said. She knew they'd turned right into the cavern at least, so she went out and turned left. But Nikola wasn't behind her and she paused. He came out into the tunnel then carrying some of his clothing. He'd stopped to search the cavern.

"I don't know what they did with the rest of it," he said as he put on his underpants and his vest. It wasn't much, but at least he wasn't totally naked any more. He buttoned the vest as they trotted up the tunnel, Helen choosing which way to go. She wasn't sure she could find the way out, but at least she'd been conscious coming through the tunnels, so there was a chance.

After a few minutes, Nikola said, "Wait" and stopped. She stopped and looked back at him.

"We need to keep moving, we're still in the Tahbor's territory."

"I can't keep going, I need blood. You offered before . . ."

"The offer is still good, Nikola." Helen walked to him, rolling up her sleeve. "Do you know what to do?"

He just shrugged and exposed his fangs.

"Right, but you don't use your fangs to feed. You have two thin needle-like feeders near your canines. When you're positioned over the vein, extend them until you hit blood. There's an anti-coagulant that should inject automatically to keep the blood flowing. When you're done, retract your feeders and lick the wounds. Your saliva will have a coagulant in it to stop the bleeding. If you need more than I can spare, I'll tap you and you stop. Ready?"

Nikola nodded and took her arm, holding it with his mouth, but being careful not to scratch her with his fangs. Having him that close to her, feeling the heat from his exposed skin made her think about doing things they really didn't have time for. And the things he could do with his mouth, his tongue . . . _focus, Helen_.

His mouth drifted over her arm and settled on a spot. She felt his lips tighten on her skin, and two little stings. Nikola's eyes closed, and from the look of pleasure on his face, she knew he was getting blood.

He fed longer than usual, but stopped on his own before she needed him to. He sucked the wounds a little and licked them, and started moving his mouth up her arm. Feeding on her blood always turned him on, and Helen knew she needed to discourage what he was doing or they'd both end up on the floor, and there really wasn't time. The Tahbors could discover they were gone and come after them at any moment.

Helen pushed his head off of her and stepped away. Nikola opened his eyes and looked around, and then leered at her.

"Down, boy. Feeling better?" she asked.

"Much, but you didn't really have to stop me, we could have . . ."

"Tahbors, Nikola."

"Oh yeah, them; spoilsports."

They continued jogging down tunnels, Helen letting her subconscious choose their path. They both were heartened when they arrived back at the manufactured tunnels with the blue lights, and shortly after they felt a draft of fresh air. They speeded up, rushing forward eagerly.

They came out of a cave into twilight. Looking around, they saw no sign of human habitation, just a mountainous wasteland.

"Well crap," said Nikola.

"I'll second that," replied Helen.

A/N: Sorry about the short cut-off on the last chapter, I was really rushed and just wanted to get something out. Epichlexi, thanks for the review on Chapter 12, and Jaydee B Bailey, thanks for reviews on 12 and 13.


	15. Chapter 15

"What do we do now?" Nikola asked.

Helen stepped out a little away from the cave and surveyed their surroundings. "Any idea where we are?"

Nikola pointed at the darkening sky. "North star, so northern hemisphere, maybe halfway between the equator and the pole."

"Rockies, Alps or Himalayas."

"Yes, but which?"

"I don't know, and it's getting too dark to tell much of anything anyway. I suppose we should stay in the cave tonight."

Nikola looked uneasily at the cave mouth. "What about the Tahbors? When they find we're gone . . ."

"They might come after us, but there's a whole warren of tunnels to search. And besides, they've seen what an angry, conscious vampire can do."

"Yeah, I really whupped up on them, didn't I?"

Helen just smiled and nodded, indulging his high opinion of his fighting skills. They retreated into the cave, but not far. Helen would have liked to have a fire, but wherever they were they were high enough to be above the tree line, so no firewood. She wasn't sure she could make a fire without any tools at all anyway.

They sat together with their backs to a wall. Nikola put his arm around her and pulled her in tight to his side. They could share their warmth a little that way, and besides, it was pleasant to be together.

Helen awoke in the pre-dawn light and found herself half on top of Nikola. Well, he was warmer than the ground. She could see her breath in the cold air and the vampire under her stirred when she sat up.

They both got to their feet and looked around again. "Which way?" Nikola asked.

"Well, my immediate need is water. Food and civilization would be nice too, but my body needs liquid to replace the blood you drank yesterday."

"Down?"

"Yes, down. This way doesn't look too steep." Helen led them down a rocky slope, Nikola falling in behind her. But she soon found him lagging badly, picking his way carefully through the rocks and occasionally hopping on one foot when he stepped on something sharp.

"Come on, Nikola, keep up."

"I'm coming. I'm used to wearing shoes, you know. Want to loan me yours?"

Helen just shook her head. "They wouldn't fit your longer feet, and no, I'm not carrying you."

The slope steepened, and then dropped off sharply. Helen went parallel to the drop off, and more slowly, being careful of her footing. Nikola caught up. She spotted a narrow ledge against a rock face that started a little higher up the slope, and climbed to it, the vampire following.

He touched her arm as they reached the ledge. "Let me go first." Helen nodded agreement and Nikola moved out onto the narrow path. It wasn't bad at first. They could walk along it fairly normally.

As it wound around a cliff, they could look back and see that the slope they had been on was a very old slide area, and the ledge actually continued on the other side as well. So they were on some sort of path, although after such a long time wherever it led might not still be there. But it was encouraging to think that other people had traveled that way sometime in the past.

The trail dropped steadily, sometimes narrowing so much they had to inch along sideways, but always passable. Gradually it wound down into a valley where there was both scrubby vegetation and water. By the time they reached the tiny spring that gushed out of the rocks, it was late afternoon. They both drank deeply.

"We shouldn't stay too close to the water tonight," Helen said.

"Right, every predator in the area will visit during the night." Nikola slowly turned three hundred and sixty degrees, looking at the mountains on every side. "I don't see anything too promising for shelter."

Helen had been looking too. "I don't see any obvious caves, but there's a wide ledge over there about twenty feet up. That will at least get us up high enough to discourage most creatures."

"Yeah, but it's twenty feet straight up. I can probably jump it, but how are you going to get up there?"

"I have a friend with claws, remember?"

They hiked over to the cliff face below the ledge. "Piggy back?" Nikola asked.

Helen grinned. "I haven't had a piggy back ride since I was a little girl. Crouch down a bit."

Nikola did, and she climbed on his back, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, doing her best not to choke him. Nikola vamped and started to climb. The rock face was rough enough that he had no problem finding purchase with his claws and toes, and they were soon over the edge.

The ledge was about ten feet deep and twenty long, and the cliff above them bellied out a bit providing some protection from falling rocks. They both inspected the ledge carefully; the middle of the night was not the time to find a nest of snakes or something.

But they were in sole proprietorship, and they settled down next to each other up against the cliff.

"How are you doing with your memories?" Helen asked in the fading light.

"Good. I'm nearly straightened out. Now that I know that I really am a vampire, a lot of what I was rejecting before makes sense." He grinned at her. "Being King of the Vampires is pretty cool, huh?"

"Absolutely."

"Helen . . . do you think Danny is okay without us?"

"I'm sure everyone at the Sanctuary is taking care of him. But I miss him so much, Nikola."

"Me too. We need to get back there."

"Yes, we do."

"We wandered around all day and just saw rocks. What happened to the pretty Alpine valleys with the cute cottages?"

"They're in the Alps, and we're not."

"I was afraid of that. Not the Rockies, either?"

"No."

"The Himalayas are a very big range of mountains."

"We'll make it back, Nikola. We've gotten out of the underground and we're back on the surface. We just need to find some people, preferably with a cell phone. We'll be home soon."

"I hope so. I wonder how my electrical creatures are doing."

"_Your_ electrical creatures? Don't tell me you miss them."

"No, just curious what they've been doing on their own without a host."

"Nikola, when we get back you are to leave those creatures strictly alone. I will not have you infected again, do you understand?"

"I'm not going to get infected. Go to sleep, Helen. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Right."

In the morning Nikola got them down off of the ledge and they visited the spring again. They noticed fresh tracks here and there in bits of soil amid the rocks, but none of them were clear and most were just partials so the animals that made them were not identifiable.

Helen pointed and asked, "Nikola, that way is north, right?"

Nikola consulted his inner magnetic sense and replied, "Right," and corrected her direction a little.

"That's the direction we're going."

"Why, won't we run into China if we go that way?"

"Eventually, but we won't go that far. I think I'm getting my bearings. Remember I spent decades in Tibet at one time."

"When you weren't running around the world getting information to build your new Sanctuary."

"That too. Follow me."

They trudged off to the north, following an extension of the valley for a short distance and then started to climb up a slope again.

"Why can't we just follow the path like any normal person?" Nikola grumbled.

"Because it doesn't lead where we need to go. Help me with this bit, Nikola."

He did, climbing behind her and giving her a boost whenever she got stuck, or climbing past her and reaching down to take her hand to pull her up. Eventually they arrived at another more gently sloping area where they could walk next to each other. Helen suddenly stopped and held up her hand.

"Did you hear that?"

They both stood, listening, and very faintly they heard the tinkling of bells. Nikola and Helen smiled at each other. Then they froze when they heard another sound, much closer and a lot less pleasant.

A deep roar came from the slope above them. A white ape-like creature many times larger than a gorilla appeared above them. "Yeti!" they said together.

Nikola had done some partial vamps during the climb, but now he went full vampire. Helen could only take a couple of needles out of her pocket and hold them in a defensive position.

Both of them waited to see what the creature would do. How intelligent was it? Were they in its territory?

Helen called out in Tibetan, "We mean no harm! We're just passing through."

The yeti bared its fangs and roared again. Then it leapt down the slope at them.

Nikola moved quickly forward, intercepting it before it could reach Magnus. He took a couple of swipes at it with his claws, but more for show than a real attack, just cutting some of its thick fur. The Abnormal hit him with a gigantic clawed paw and threw him fifty feet.

Helen retreated and ran toward Nikola, who was muttering under his breath and staggering back to his feet. The yeti raised its arms and gave a deep triumphant cry, and then bounded between them.

She threatened it with a needle, but didn't try to attack or retreat from it. "Don't make me use this," she warned the huge beast. It hesitated, but only for a moment. Then it batted her like it had Nikola, but yelped at the moment of contact as Helen drove one of the needles into its arm.

The yeti was stupidly staring at the needle when Nikola landed on its back. The vampire was furious that the creature had hit Helen and used his claws on its face and sank his fangs deep into the back of the yeti's neck. It tasted terrible, but he sliced his way through the thick muscle toward the spine. It hurt Helen; he would kill it for that.

The yeti was clawing Nikola at the same time, raking his back and head, trying to dislodge the vampire. The creature finally managed to hook its claws into Nikola's body and drag him off, but the vampire's fangs ripped through the Abnormal's neck as it did so.

Nikola was slammed to the ground. The creature pounded him a couple of times, and then loped off, shaking its head and still spattering blood from its neck as it went.

Helen and Nikola both lay still. After three or four minutes Nikola's hand twitched. Then his eyes opened. "Helen?" he croaked. No answer.

The vampire needed more time to heal, he'd been hurt badly by the yeti. But Helen was injured, might be . . . no, she needed his help, that was all. Nikola forced himself to move, grunting in pain as his bones realigned into their proper positions. He slowly got to his knees, and then his feet. His vest was just rags that fell off of him as he got up.

He turned around slowly, looking for her, and finally spotted the still pile of cloth. He staggered slowly in that direction, stumbling and falling, then rising again, determined to get to the woman he loved.

He collapsed next to her, hesitating a moment until he was sure he had enough control over his muscles to be able to touch her gently. Nikola reached toward her, but realized his claws were still extended and devamped.

She was on her back, her eyes closed. He touched her neck, feeling for a pulse, and found it. Thank god, she was alive. But there was blood on the side of her head, and who knew what other injuries she might have.

"Helen? Helen, can you hear me?" No response, what should he do? He couldn't leave her on the rocky hillside but moving her might be terribly dangerous, he could accidently make her injuries worse, even kill her.

He huddled there, next to her. His body wanted to shut down and go into healing mode, but he couldn't allow that. He heard bells again.

That was it; he had to get her to the bells. That meant he had to pick her up and carry her, but gently. Nikola shivered a little, half from the cold air and half from the thought he might hurt her.

The vampire forced himself to move slowly, carefully, with great deliberation. He supported Helen's head, trying to minimize movement of her neck. He got her cradled into his arms, and stood as smoothly as he could.

Now where were those bells? As if in response, he heard them tinkle again. Nikola began to walk in the direction of the sound, hoping desperately that there weren't any cliffs between him and other people, and that against all odds he would find an advanced medical hospital with a wind chime.

A/N: Epichlexi, thanks for the reviews on chapters 13 and 14.


	16. Chapter 16

Once over the rise they had been climbing, the ground dropped steadily. The blood trail from the yeti went in one direction, Nikola in another; he definitely did not want to meet that creature again.

He was soon in a lovely valley with grass, trees, and grain fields. The bells were louder, and he was pretty sure they were wind chimes from their sporadic tinkle. He came upon a narrow, rutted dirt road and followed it into a village.

The houses were of stone and brick and well-maintained. A man drove a wooden cart slowly down the road toward him pulled by a large shaggy black and white horned beast that Nikola tentatively identified as some sort of oxen. But he didn't step aside, and the man pulled the cart off of the road to let him pass, staring at the stranger. Yes, they were definitely in Tibet or thereabouts.

Too bad Nikola didn't speak a word of the language. How was he going to find whatever passed for a doctor in this place? He got more stares from women and children as he strode down the road with his precious burden. He had to admit he was likely quite a sight; a nearly naked filthy Caucasian man carrying a bloody Caucasian woman wasn't something the villagers saw every day. And they kept staring after he'd gone by; oh yes, the yeti claw marks on his back and head hadn't healed yet, although he wasn't actually bleeding or anything.

A man hurried up to him and bowed a little. He said something to Nikola, who almost shrugged but stopped himself before he jostled Helen in his arms and shook his head. Nikola replied in English, "Sorry, I don't understand your language. Does anyone here speak English?" He tried every other language he knew on the man, who just looked apologetic and kept shrugging and shaking his head.

But the man gestured at Nikola to follow him, so the vampire did. They went completely through the village and began climbing a steep trail on the far side. The dirt path changed into broad stone steps that narrowed as they went up. The stairs switched back on itself several times, and Nikola could see they were high above the village. Eventually the stairway ended in a broad flat area in front of tall, intricately carved wooden gates.

Nikola's guide gestured at the gates, gave another little bow, and went back down the stairs leaving the vampire wondering what he was supposed to do. He didn't see a knocker or a bell rope anywhere, not that he had a hand free to use either. He was just about to try shouting when the gates cracked open.

The man who opened the gates had a shaved head and wore some sort of yellow robes, so Nikola assumed he was a monk of some sort. The thought of a monastery made Nikola a little uneasy, some were very strict about admitting women. But the man just waved the two of them inside, closed the gates behind them, and led them through a narrow passage and then up a set of stairs set against a cliff face.

At the top, they went through an arch into the rock itself. But the floor and walls were smooth, and the large spaces inside weren't at all cave-like. Some even had windows that let in light from outside. The monk led Nikola through a number of passageways into a small, plain room. Two other monks awaited them, one old and one young, between them a pile of jugs and satchels and in front of them a pallet. The monk guide gestured toward the pallet.

Nikola wasn't sure about turning over Helen's care to these people, but he didn't have much choice. One thing for sure, he was going to supervise every moment. He knelt and placed Helen down on the pallet as carefully and gently as he could. Then he sat down near the top of her head where he would be out of the way but could see everything they did.

The two men murmured to each other as they worked. The younger began cleaning the blood from Helen's head and hair, while the older passed his hands over her body, checking every bone. Nikola was pleased that both men seemed experienced and professional in their care.

The older man removed Helen's clothes as he worked. He paused over her left forearm, and even Nikola could see the shape of it wasn't quite right. When the younger man had finished cleaning and bandaging her head, he washed the rest of her while the older man took things out of one of the satchels.

The vampire could hardly stand to watch the monk manipulate the bones in her arm, but forced himself to. He was only glad she was still unconscious otherwise it would have been terribly painful for her. Once the splint was applied and bandaged into place, they seemed to be done and placed a light blanket over her.

Then they turned to Nikola. The younger monk came at him with a wet soapy cloth, but Nikola took it from his hand and washed himself, although he allowed the young man to do his back. The monk did it very gently, and Nikola let him without saying anything. His back didn't hurt at all, but it should have with the fresh claw marks on it. Nikola tried his various languages on the two monks while the younger one worked, but they both just shook their heads.

The older monk applied some sort of salve to the yeti claw marks. It was strong-smelling but not unpleasant, and Nikola amused himself with thinking about how amazed the monk would be tomorrow when he saw the wonders his salve had supposedly wrought.

While the older monk had been slathering salve on Nikola, the younger had gone out and returned with a second pallet and sets of pale tan monk's robes and sandals. He said something apologetic to Nikola. When Nikola stood up to put on the robes, he realized it was for the size of the clothing. He was much taller than anyone he'd seen so far, so the robes were a little short, but still preferable to the filthy shorts he was wearing. Nikola was surprised to find his skin dry when he donned the robes, the salve completely absorbed. There was a second set of robes for Helen, but no one moved to put them on her; it was more important that she rest.

The older monk offered Nikola a drink of something that wasn't water. Nikola didn't take it from his hand. The younger put his hands together next to his cheek, tilted his head to that side, and closed his eyes. Oh, something to make him sleep. Nikola just shook his head.

They left the drink near Magnus, pantomiming her waking in pain, drinking, and sleeping. Nikola nodded at that. The two monks left, carrying their satchels and equipment.

Nikola unrolled the second pallet next to Helen and sat down. The door opened again, and a different young monk came in with a tray on a low table. On it was bread and some sort of barley soup with carrots, potatoes, and cabbage, and herbal tea. He set it next to Nikola and left.

Well this may not be an advanced medical center, but the people were friendly and trying to be helpful. But Nikola doubted any of the monks had cell phones, and didn't know how to ask if anyone in the village had one either.

But for the moment he just drank his tea. When Helen stirred, he anxiously said, "Helen? Come on, wake up. We're safe here."

She came more fully awake, and he helped her sit up. She winced a little and asked, "My arm?"

"Broken, both bones I think. I don't speak Tibetan so I couldn't ask."

"Did you undress me?"

"No, an old monk did that. Don't worry, I kept an eye on him the whole time. There are robes here you could wear, if you'd be more comfortable."

Helen acquiesced and when they had her dressed, asked, "Where are we?"

"I found a village; we're in a monastery above it. Want some soup? It's not hot anymore."

"I don't care, I'm starving." Nikola moved the table over to her and she cleaned the bowl and ate the bread, using it to wipe up every drop. But he could see she was clearly in a lot of pain, and when she'd finished he offered her the sleeping drink.

She considered for a moment. "We're safe?"

"I think so, and I'll be right here the whole time."

Helen took the cup and emptied it. Nikola helped ease her back down, and she was asleep in less than a minute. Since there was nothing else he needed to do, he blew out most of the candles in the room and lay down on his own pallet and worked on finishing healing.

When he was completely healed, Nikola woke. It was late, the candles in the room burned low. He checked Helen and found her sleeping peacefully, so he decided it would be a good time for him to explore and find out a little more about their hosts.

The door wasn't locked; in fact, it didn't even have a lock, just a simple latch that could be opened from either side. Nikola took off his sandals and eased out into the hall. He could move more quietly barefooted.

There were candles in sconces here and there, also burned low, and outside many of the doors were cups set next to the wall with supplies of candles. So at least he knew no one was wandering around replacing them in the middle of the night. He recalled going through a large central area with many passages and doors, so he headed back to it.

He checked several of the doors; none were locked. One was a broom closet, another an empty room with benches, a third led to a long hallway. Checking down the hall he found a lot of doors close together on both sides; monk's cells, perhaps.

Back in the central room he heard footsteps and slipped into the broom closet until the sound of slapping sandals had faded. Then he chose a large passage with an arched roof. It looked important, and the size seemed to indicate it was used often by a lot of monks.

It ended in a huge multi-tiered room with a large statue of Buddha at one end. Nikola didn't realize there were monks present when he walked in, but he saw movement and ducked back into the hallway. He thought he'd been seen, but there was no outcry or protest, so maybe nobody cared if he wandered around.

He went back to Magnus. He'd left her alone long enough and was growing uneasy about her safety, although so far no one had threatened them in any way. He picked up a couple of new candles outside their door and took them in. Helen was still asleep when he refreshed the two that were burning in their room.

In the morning the two medical monks returned. Helen woke when they entered, and the younger one helped her sit up while Nikola nonchalantly allowed the elder to examine his smooth unmarked back, neck and head. He could see that the monks were astonished, but he treated his impossibly quick recovery as if it were normal.

They replaced the bandage on Helen's head and checked her arm while she chatted with them in Tibetan. As soon as they left, she started to explain the conversation to Nikola, but two young monks came in with food for them so she waited until they had left.

"You were right about my arm; I'm afraid I'm out of commission for a while."

Nikola sipped the herbal tea and made a face. He really preferred blander black tea, but yesterday he had been thirsty and not very picky.

"Did you happen to ask them about a way of contacting the Sanctuary?"

"I'm afraid the only way we'll be able to get in touch is to go to a much larger town, although all they actually said was we needed to speak to their lama. If we travel to any population center there would be Chinese there. I'm not sure how China would treat us, having no passports, visas, or any rational explanation of how we got here."

Nikola took one more sip of tea and put it down. "They'd probably brand us spies. So we need to get out on our own. I wonder how close we are to Bhalasaam?"

"Not very, as near as I can tell. If we go south far enough we'd run into Nepal, I think."

"I could probably manage that, but . . ." Nikola gestured at her arm.

"Mountain climbing is not going to be my forte for quite a while, Nikola. We're to meet with the head of the monastery this afternoon. Perhaps he'll have some ideas."

"They don't seem very upset or concerned about us being here."

"They've had more contact with the outside world than you might expect; previous visitors, and they send monks out to various local towns and they pick up information as well."

Just then the door opened and another young monk entered with the clothes they had been wearing the day before, cleaned and neatly folded. When he'd gone, Nikola helped Helen change although she kept on an outer monk's robe as well. Nikola discovered that in addition to his underpants, he now had a long tunic of sorts, hand sewn from the same material as the robes they'd been given.

He held it up and said, "Oh wonderful, a dress." But he put it on anyway as well as one of the outer robes. He was just glad none of the children were around to tease him about his outfit.

When the monks came to take them to their leader, they passed through a large room with windows. The shutters were open, and a mild breeze entered from them. Helen swerved to stand by a window and look out, Nikola following and the monks waiting patiently.

Helen said, "Nikola, I think I know where we are. In fact, I've been here before."

"Is this the mountaintop you supposedly sat on top of for 113 years?"

"I think it is. I did actually stay here for a few decades, on and off. But after the Chinese came in in 1950 it became much more difficult to go in and out, so after that I spent more time in Nepal, and just a few years here in the late eighties."

"So twenty-five years, more or less. Run into anyone you know yet?"

They turned and started walking with their guides again. "Not yet, but I very well may."

When they came to a room with a few benches and a door on the other side, the monks told Nikola to wait there, Helen interpreting. Then they opened the inner door and allowed her through.

Nikola sat reluctantly. He didn't like being separated from her, but so far everyone had treated them well, so he just sat quietly, listening as hard as he could in case Helen called out or screamed.


	17. Chapter 17

Helen walked into a larger room that was more or less an office. An older monk sat at a desk writing, there were two wooden chairs in front of the desk and a couple of old wooden file cabinets against one wall. He looked up.

He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him; a small smile appeared on his face.

"Helen Magnus, it is good to see you again. Please, sit." he said in English.

His voice triggered her memory. She smiled broadly as she took a chair. "Doug. Look at you, the head of the monastery now."

"Indeed. It has been long since anyone used my old nickname and it is long since I had a use for my English. It is good to hear it again." He contemplated her for a few moments, and then said, "So what you told me so long ago is true. I was never quite sure before. You do not age."

"I age, just very slowly."

"Do you find it a blessing or a curse?"

"A little bit of both. That's the best answer I can give."

Doug seemed to accept that. "What happened to your arm?"

"We were attacked by a yeti."

He shook his head. "It was not a yeti, Helen. They are quite peaceful creatures. It was probably a bdang-ang, they are larger and not as intelligent. You said 'we', and I have been told you have a man with you. Is it your friend Watson?"

Helen's face reflected her sadness as she said, "No, James passed away a few years ago. He didn't receive longevity from the serum we took as I did, and his machinery finally failed. The man with me is Nikola Tesla."

The smile left the old monk's face. "You told me of him if you remember. You said he is likely the single most dangerous man on earth, and also that he had disappeared. Apparently you found him, but why did you bring him here?"

Helen wasn't sure how to explain Nikola to him. "Coming here was more or less an accident. It's difficult to explain, it has to do with a new technology Nikola invented."

"He is a monster that drinks blood. Will he leave peacefully if he is told to go?"

"Doug, Nikola and I are together. We came together and we'll go together. In fact, we need to get back to the Sanctuary. We have a very young child that we need to return to. But we're not sure how to get out of Tibet."

"You have a child with a man you say is very dangerous? To do such a thing, your wisdom must exceed mine. Will this man attack us for our blood?"

"No, of course not. Nikola isn't going to hurt anyone. He does drink blood, but animal blood extracted without injury to the donor is his usual fare."

"Now you say he will hurt no one, and yet for so long you said he was terribly dangerous."

Helen tried to explain. "Nikola Tesla is a genius. At times, he loses perspective about what he wants and what he's doing. His extreme intelligence can become borderline insanity. But my presence seems to stabilize him, focus him on my goals rather than the things that pop into his head, like recreating the vampire race and ruling the world. He always means well, Doug. Sometimes he loses patience with human problems and comes up with rather radical solutions."

The old monk did not look convinced. "Helen, you are welcome here for as long as you wish to stay. But he is not. I do not want him in my monastery, or the village below, or anywhere in Tibet for that matter. I am concerned for the safety of my people. I hope you can understand."

Helen nodded. "You feel responsible for protecting them, of course I understand that. But I give you my word- Nikola is not a danger to anyone."

"I was told he was wandering around alone last night. I was not alarmed when I thought it was Watson, you always spoke so highly of him. Now I think I should have been."

He noted the surprised look on her face. He said, "You did not know that was roaming about, did you? Perhaps he is not as trustworthy as you thought."

Helen opened her mouth to protest, but he held up his hand and continued. "You have always spoken the truth to me, but just because you currently believe he is trustworthy does not make him so. You have always in the past told me he is not someone to trust. You wish to return to your Sanctuary, perhaps that can be arranged, but you must rest and recover for a few days first. And if you would, you can assist me in something."

She was baffled, not able to think of anything that she could do for him, especially with one arm in a sling. He rose from his chair and said, "Please come with me. I have something to show you."

They went out into the waiting room. Nikola stood up as soon as the door opened. The old monk with Helen gave him a long sharp look, but walked past with her following. Nikola fell in beside her.

"How'd it go?" he asked quietly.

She waggled her good hand at him in a "so-so" gesture. "Nikola, this is Dge-Bzang Ras-Pa, someone I knew when I was here before. His English is excellent and he allows me to call him Doug. Doug, let me introduce you to Nikola Tesla."

Doug stopped and turned to Nikola, and after a momentary hesitation, extended his hand as a Westerner might. Nikola took it and they shook hands briefly, the monk pulling his hand back quickly after a minimum shake. Nikola noted the mistrust in his expression when their eyes momentarily met.

"Um, pleased to meet you," Nikola said, but the monk didn't return the greeting. He just said, "Follow me, please."

They went down stairs, through several passages, and down again to a level lower than the entrance. Helen was getting tired and her arm was aching, but she wanted to see whatever her old friend thought was so important.

They came to a door and Doug took out a key and unlocked it. It was the only door they'd seen that even had a lock. Inside, an odd odor hit them immediately. There were bales of fodder and bags of grain and other boxes in a small room. He led them through it into a large cavern, the source of the odor from its increased strength there.

There were cages in the room, and alcoves with bars across them, many housing Abnormals. Helen's eyes widened when she saw the two beings working at caring for the creatures there. They were somewhat like white gorillas, but completely bipedal with flatter faces and higher foreheads. They turned when the three entered.

Doug moved forward confidently and said, "Helen, these are yetis. Meet Koden and Tanka. Koden and Tanka, this is Helen Magnus. She is the one I have told you about. She runs a true sanctuary for those who do not fit in with humans."

The male and female white furry beings came over to them. They were a little shorter than Helen but much heavier, and wore just simple shifts that left their arms bare and reached their knees. They both smiled and bowed a little. Koden said, "Very pleased, Helen Magnus." Tanka nodded and added, "Me, too. Sorry, English not good."

Helen grinned back. For Nikola's sake she spoke in English as well, hoping the yetis would understand. "I'm very pleased to meet you both. This is my friend, Nikola Tesla." She elbowed Nikola in the ribs and he said, "Charmed, I'm sure." He didn't look very charmed, he looked like he didn't want to get too close to them.

Tanka smiled at him uncertainly, and Koden attempted to repeat the phrase, hashing it a bit.

Doug said, "As you can see, they are good people and help us very much in caring for our charges. But they are not safe here as they would be in your Sanctuary. The favor I would ask is for them, to take them with you where they can have a better life than to be hidden in a cavern all the time."

Helen said, "Doug, we would be happy to have them at the Sanctuary, but I must be honest, for safety we've moved to an underground location. It's larger and more like the outdoors than this cave, but I couldn't guarantee their safety on the surface."

The monk nodded and spoke rapidly to the yeti couple in Tibetan, explaining the situation. They conferred with each other in a third language, and then Koden said in Tibetan, "We would like to go to this Sanctuary, even if it is underground. Here, we can see few people, and it is lonely for us. The Sanctuary has many people we can befriend?"

Helen replied in Tibetan as well, "Yes, but all are not humans, many are what we term Abnormals."

Tanka replied in Tibetan, "Then we would like to go to this place. We are used to living in a community, a village if you will, but now there are so few of our kind we never see anyone. The monks have been kind, but only three know us. Master Ras-Pa thinks the others would not understand."

Helen brought Nikola up to speed on the Tibetan portions of the conversation. He took her good elbow and began escorting her around the cavern to see the creatures kept there, and when they were out of hearing range of the yetis, said, "We don't even know how to get ourselves home, how are we going to smuggle a couple of big hairy snow cones with us?"

"We'll go through the mountains to Bhalasaam, and gate home."

"May I remind you we don't have a gate controller?"

"No, but we have the man who invented the gates, and he's going to build one, right?"

"Out of what? Yak hair?"

"You'll manage."

Nikola stopped and spread his arms wide. "How? I'm good, but I have to have at least some sort of raw materials."

"I'll get the materials, Nikola."

Nikola muttered, "Stone knives and bearskins." Helen just smiled at the reference. Apparently Nikola was familiar with Star Trek; of course he would identify with Spock. They continued their tour of the Abnormal creatures the monastery housed.

Doug came up to them and said, "As you see Helen, we have taken your mission seriously and have removed these dangerous creatures to a place where they can do no harm. We care for them, and they will live out their natural life spans. But intelligent beings such as the yeti need more than we can provide."

Nikola replied, "Don't worry, her butler is a cousin of theirs, they'll fit right in."

The monk gave him a confused look. Helen said, "We would be happy to have them at the Sanctuary. But getting there may be difficult."

She swayed a little and found Nikola standing close at her elbow. "You're looking pale, Helen. You need to rest."

Helen nodded and the fact that she agreed with him so readily concerned the vampire more than her complexion. Doug led them back out and locked the doors behind them, then took them upstairs to a different room than the one they had been in before. Helen had difficulty making it up the stairs, going slower and slower until Nikola just picked her up and carried her.

The room was larger, had a window with shutters, and actual cots, chairs, and a small table suited to Westerners. There was a jug of water on the table and two mugs, but also a smaller jug of the sleeping potion. But she didn't need it, she was already dozing by the time Nikola gently deposited her on one of the cots. Doug had left as soon as he'd seen them inside.

Helen napped and woke feeling better by dinnertime. A tray and a separate covered mug were carried in by two young monks, the tray with more soup, bread, and tea. Helen and Nikola sat down at the table. The soup tray was placed before her, the lone mug placed before Nikola. The monk with the mug put it on the table nervously, nearly spilling it in spite of the cover, and they both hurried out.

Nikola cautiously lifted the mug cover, and even Helen could smell the odor of fresh blood. He wrinkled his nose. "I think it's yak; definitely cow-related." He put the lid back on. "I'm not that hungry."

Helen began eating and said, "You haven't fed since the bdang-ang attack, and you've done a lot of healing. Even if it is cow-related, you need to eat, Nikola."

He sighed deeply and picked up the mug and went to stare out of the window. She didn't watch him; she knew he didn't like feeding in front of her, and drinking blood out of a mug was an awkward way for him to feed. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see his head tilted back so he could extend his feeders into the mug.

Nikola returned to the table shortly. He set the mug down and said, "Okay, I drank half. It was starting to congeal and I just can't stomach any more. How's your soup?"

"Excellent, although I'm starting to recall how bored I used to get with the cuisine here, and it hasn't changed."

When she was finished, the vampire put his mug on her tray and set it in the hall. Then he closed and latched the shutters on the window, and helped Helen undress and get under the blanket on her cot. He stripped down to his underpants and lay down on the other cot, but didn't sleep. He needed to figure out how he could pare down the required materials to a minimum for building a gate controller, and he lay awake for several hours thinking about it before going to sleep.

They were both rudely awakened in the morning by their door being flung open and a dozen monks charging in and grabbing Nikola out of bed. He was too surprised to resist as they chained his wrists behind him. He looked to Helen for some clue as to what was going on and how he should react.

Helen woke fully at the incursion, sat up and demanded of the monks in Tibetan, "What is the meaning of this? What in the world . . ."

Doug came in, checked that Nikola was bound, and then turned to her. In English he said, "You said he was no danger, that he would not hurt anyone. Now one of my young people is dead, his throat punctured, his blood drained! Your creature has murdered him!"

A/N: Thank you for the review, epichlexi.


	18. Chapter 18

Nikola was watching Helen's reaction to the charge against him. She shook her head in denial at Doug, but gestured for Nikola to take no action at the same time.

"Doug, Nikola hasn't attacked anyone."

But the head monk just told his monks to take Nikola, and they grabbed him and pushed him out of the room. Helen dressed as quickly as she could and followed. Nikola didn't struggle; he was quite sure he could break the chains binding him whenever he wished, but vamping would only scare the monks and they were already acting out of fear.

They took him to the chamber housing the Abnormals and put him in one of the barred alcoves. One of the monks said something to Nikola in Tibetan, but he didn't understand. Helen arrived then and translated.

"Nikola, he wants you to face the wall and kneel so he can remove your binding. He's afraid and wants a head start to get out of the door."

The vampire replied, "They really have no clue, do they?"

"No, and don't give them one. We'll get this straightened out, I promise. For now, just cooperate."

Nikola did as Helen asked, and he was unchained. He waited patiently while the monk who released him leapt out the door, and the jail door was closed and locked before he moved. He was imprisoned in an area that looked a bit like an old cell from the Wild West. The only difference was the rock surfaces and the total lack of furniture.

Helen spoke to the monks. Most of them left, but she remained with four of them and explained to Nikola, "I sent some of them to get your clothing and some furniture and candles. I'll talk to Doug about rounding up whatever small tools they have and anything they can find with wiring. As long as you're stuck in there, you might as well start on the controller."

Nikola gestured her over to the bars and spoke quietly; the monks might or might not understand English. "The locks are steel. You know I can unlock them whenever I want."

Helen replied just as quietly, "Please don't. Once they see that whoever murdered their man is still at large while you're in there, they'll realize they made a mistake and free you."

"Maybe. Meanwhile whatever killed that monk is still loose and you're out there and I'm in here. Sure you don't want to get yourself tossed in the clink with me?"

"No thanks. I'll be perfectly safe, I'll wedge a chair under the door handle tonight. Besides, if I'm in there with you, you won't get any work done."

"I won't get any done anyway unless our buddies can come up with some materials I can work with. What are the odds, do you think, that they'll have a block of platinum lying around?"

Several monks came back bearing objects for Nikola's cell. One talked to Helen, and she translated that Nikola was to sit on the floor facing the back wall and not move. He complied, and the monks unlocked his cell and took in his cot, a small table and a chair, his clothing, and candles, as well as a couple of sacks with odd bulges.

When they were out and the door re-locked, Nikola immediately got up and dumped out the sacks on the cot and spread out the contents. One held an odd assortment of tools including screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, and a hammer, almost all far too big and clumsy for detailed work. The other held an old radio, unidentifiable things with wires sticking out, a few old vacuum tubes, dead batteries, an old electric alarm clock, and an electric hand mixer with a cord but no plug. Nikola picked it up and stared at it in disbelief.

He dropped it back on the bed and looked at Helen. "Really? This is a joke, right?"

"No joke, Nikola. I'll see if they can find something more . . . pertinent. Do what you can and I'll see you later."

Nikola got dressed; there was no rush to get at the supplies he'd been given. Helen went to talk to Doug, to explain what sort of things they would need. Doug wanted to help, although Helen got the impression it was more for the yetis and getting Nikola out of Tibet than for her. Nevertheless, he sent a small group of monks to a larger town that was only a one day walk away with instructions on the kinds of things needed.

After lunch she wanted to visit Nikola, but the door to the Abnormal area was locked. She went to see Doug to get the key, but he wasn't available. There was nothing she could do about it, so she went back to her room, dragged her cot over in front of the window, and sat on it cross-legged facing the sunlight with her eyes closed and tried to meditate. She succeeded for a while, but then just sat looking out over the valley to the mountains on the other side.

Having nothing to do wasn't a new experience for her, but it wasn't one she liked very much. Once in a while it was all right to just sit and think if it was by her choice, but forced idleness didn't amuse her.

Someone had mentioned that there were three monks who knew about the yetis. Did that mean that two other monks besides Doug had keys? She went to find out.

Helen eventually did find another man with a key, and he unlocked the door for her and made sure she understood how to lock it behind her when she went in and again when she left. He reminded her several times that some of the creatures inside were dangerous, as if she had never dealt with an Abnormal before. It tried her patience, but she kept a smile on her face through the entire lecture.

When he finally left her, she walked across the large cavern, traded greetings with the yetis who were going about their business, and finally arrived at Nikola's cell. She wasn't sure if what he had done was progress, but he'd certainly been working.

One of the sacks was pushed out between the bars and on it was piled most of the large tools and useless parts. One of his covered cups sat next to it. He had a half dozen candles burning on and around the table where he was working, and aside from a few small tools, everything else he'd kept was disassembled into pieces and sorted into small piles of like items.

He greeted her without looking up. "Oh, there you are. Do you think you can get me a soldering iron and a wire stripper? I don't absolutely need the stripper, I've been doing it with my teeth, but it would definitely be an improvement."

"Why don't you just ask for a working cell phone and a computer so you could order the parts you need?" Helen asked sharply.

Nikola put down the piece of wire he'd been working with and turned in his chair to face her. "Right. The monastery doesn't have electricity, so they don't have things that run on electricity and they wouldn't have any use for tools to work on electrical wires. I get it, but I don't think you do. There is no way I can turn this pile of junk into anything useful much less a highly sophisticated piece of equipment like a gate controller."

"Then what have you been doing all day?"

He pointed at the pile on the bag outside his cell. "Trying. That stuff you can give back, if anyone wants it. The rest of this is maybe useful for some of the simpler bits I need, but by itself it amounts to nothing. How about a small sharp paring knife? Surely they must use something to cut up vegetables."

"I can probably get you a paring knife." She bent and looked in the cup and found it full of congealed blood. "You didn't eat."

"I'm still not hungry enough. Get me the paring knife and see if you can find tin and lead, rosin and alcohol, and something with a high melting point I can heat up with my electricity to use as the soldering iron."

"Alcohol? You're not making wine in there, are you Nikola?"

"I wish, but it would be pretty horrible wine anyway. No I need the alcohol as a carrier for the rosin flux; it has to be noncorrosive for electronic circuits. Do you think anyone might have a loupe or a magnifying glass?"

"I don't know, but I can ask."

"See what other small objects you can find that I can use as tools. I'll have to make tools as I go so anything with a fine tip has potential. There's wood carving here, some of the smaller carving tools might be adaptable to what I'm doing."

Helen just smiled and started a mental list. This was pure Tesla. The job was absolutely impossible, but he was working out ways to do it. She wondered if there might be a way she could get him some wine; he certainly deserved a reward.

Helen passed Nikola's list on to Doug and went to bed pleased that Nikola had accepted the challenge and was cooperating in his imprisonment. As long as he had work to do, it would be harder to get him to come out of that cell than keep him in it. She just hoped that the monks would be able to come up with some of the items Nikola needed so he would stay busy. A bored Nikola could be trouble.

At least the next morning there were no reports of any monks being attacked during the night. Helen was both glad that no one had been hurt, but sorry that Nikola would have to stay in his cell another day.

One of the monks came back from the village in triumph with a throw-away cell phone that someone had accidently packed when returning from the city. It was useless as a phone, but invaluable for parts. Nikola's face lit up when she took it to him, along with the paring knife and some small woodworking tools. But the ingredients for the impromptu soldering iron hadn't been found yet, aside from some tin.

"Excellent," he said. "Maybe I can get something actually useful out of this. By the way, are there any other animals around besides cows and yaks?"

"Sheep and chickens are all I've seen. Would you prefer blood from one of them?"

Nikola curled his lip and said, "No, although sheep isn't quite as horrible as cow. There's got to be something edible around here. You can tell them to stop bleeding the yak, though, I don't care how hungry I get, I am not eating any more of that stuff."

"Nikola, you can always have some of my blood."

"That's a double no. I already took some from you, and your body is stressed enough trying to heal a broken arm."

"Well no one was attacked last night. Every night you're in there and no attacks occur, it only convinces the monks that they are right about you."

The vampire sighed and said very quietly, "They are right about me, Helen. I needed some decent blood night before last, and I found some. I didn't hurt anyone though, and I certainly didn't kill that monk."

Helen was both shocked and outraged, but she kept her voice down. "Nikola! You swore you wouldn't attack humans for their blood."

"And if I had a decent source of food I wouldn't. But barring them finding an animal I can stand to drink from, there's going to be another attack pretty soon. Those monks are small, but they're pretty tasty."

"Nikola Tesla, don't you dare. Are you absolutely sure that you didn't take too much and accidently cause that monk's death?"

"I don't even know if it was the same monk, and you know better. You know how much I drink. I couldn't come close to draining a person of blood if I tried. As far as taking enough to cause death—maybe, but I'd have to really work at it. I suppose I could pump in a lot of anticoagulant and just let someone keep bleeding or rip out someone's throat, but I didn't think there were lakes of blood found with the body."

"According to what I've heard, the monk was drained, and there was no blood found with him. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to examine him, so I don't know if he was really completely drained or not."

"Either way, to take that much blood, whatever did it would have to be pretty big and very thirsty even if it was the same monk I took a little from first."

They both thought about that a bit. Then Helen said, "I don't like this at all. You're saying the creature that drained him would be bigger than you. How could something that size go unnoticed?" Nikola shrugged and she went on, "I don't care how hungry you get, you stay in your cell, Nikola. These people are non-violent, but I don't know if that would hold if there was immediate danger, and if they find you drinking someone's blood you would certainly be classified as an immediate danger. How about goat blood?"

"Not great, but I might be able to choke it down. If you could get me some decent wine and I could mix it, I might be able to tolerate it."

"Wine, of course. I don't believe I've seen any grapes growing in Tibet so I doubt we'll find any wine. You're going to have to manage without the wine, but I'll try for goat, or at least something other than yak or cow."

But Helen found out that there weren't any goats in the immediate area. She had the monks switch from yak to sheep blood, hoping that Nikola would at least drink a little. Her own dinner, for a change, was fish, rice, and vegetables.

After dinner the old man who had set her arm came to see her and check on her and rewrap her arm, now that the swelling had gone down. Helen asked him about the murdered man while he worked.

"Were you asked to examine him?"

"Yes, although it was clear he was quite dead. Why does this interest you?"

"You know I am a physician in my own country, and my companion has been accused of committing the murder. I need to know more so that I can help prove his innocence."

"There is little I can tell you. He was a young man; he should have lived many more years."

"What precisely were his injuries?"

"He had a small scrape on his left ankle, an old scratch on his right forearm, and several puncture wounds on his neck. That must have been how his blood was removed."

Helen didn't like the sound of that. Puncture wounds on the neck would match with an attack by a vampire. "How many wounds, and how far apart?"

The monk reached into one of his satchels and took out a smooth stick. On it were several marks. "There appeared to be three pairs of wounds, and you see here on this stick I have made marks to copy the positions of the punctures. Knowing how far apart were the marks for each pair may help discover the true killers. But there was also a seventh mark, so perhaps one mark was from two punctures."

Helen looked at the stick. The marks were at three distinctly different distances apart, possibly four if the seventh mark were matched with one of the others. She knew Nikolas's bite was narrow. One of the sets could match his feeders, but she wasn't sure. But even if one set was Nikolas's, two or three other creatures, perhaps even vampires, had attacked the monk as well.

"The man had no blood in him at all?"

The old man shrugged. "If he had any, it was not much."

If three or four man-sized beings had taken blood from one monk, that much blood loss might be possible. "By the marks on your stick, it appears he was attacked three or four times by different creatures, yet the death is being blamed on one man."

The monk shrugged again. "It is merely my guess about the marks being in pairs these distances apart. There is no way to be sure. Perhaps he was attacked multiple times by a creature with one probe, or perhaps I have paired the marks wrongly. This is only how it appeared to me. Perhaps one man can bite in different ways and made all the marks. If there were three or four attackers, then perhaps two or three are still free and a danger to us all, but at least one is restrained from harming anyone else."

"I see. Thank you for explaining this to me."

The old monk smiled and nodded. "Are you in much pain? Do you wish more drink to help you sleep?"

"No, thank you." The monk left and Helen closed her door after him, and wedged the chair back against it. She and Nikola hadn't even considered there might be vampires here, and yet in a remote area of the world like this, it was possible some members of the vampire race might have survived. They had survived underground in Eastern Europe, why not Tibet?

And yet, all the time she lived here before, she had heard nothing that might indicate living vampires in the area, nor anything about any blood-drinking creatures. But she was convinced something was here now besides Nikola.

Yet Nikola had admitted to attacking a monk and drinking his blood. What if instead of attacking the man once on one night, he had been drinking from him ever since they arrived? Could he have drained him?

Nikola in his right mind wasn't a murderer, Helen was sure of that. But there had been times in the past he had acted out of his usual character for some reason. He'd been bitten by that strange snake, could the venom still be in his system? He seemed to be acting normally once he woke up, but they'd been fighting and escaping the Tahbors, and then they had been climbing around in the mountains and been attacked by the b'dang-ang. How much "normal" behavior had she been able to observe?

Did Nikola need to be truly restrained, rather than just locked in a cell he could leave any time he wished? If another man was attacked, would it be her fault because she had erroneously trusted the man she loved?

These thoughts raced around in her head. She found them highly disturbing, but eventually sheer exhaustion forced her to sleep.

A/N: Jaydee B Bailey, thank you for the review, and you are not a "sucky" reviewer. Believe me, I'm pleased to get any and all reviews and I'm happy you enjoy my writing.

Epichlexi, thank you for the review as well. You know, Nikola might not be innocent after all. I admit I'd never have him do anything truly evil in his right mind, but things happen to him quite regularly in my stories as I'm sure you've noticed so you never know.


	19. Chapter 19

Helen awoke to the sound of running footsteps in the hallway outside her door. She sat up, alert, listening. The one set of footsteps was followed by multiple sets, and she quickly got out of bed and hastily dressed. Something was going on and she was determined to find out what.

She could hear some small scuffling and grunting noises now not too far from her door- a quiet fight perhaps? Helen moved the chair away from the door and cautiously opened it and peeked out.

There was a knot of struggling men in the corridor, but she couldn't make out much. The candles in the hall were out, except for a few down the hall on the other side of her door, so there was only a little light. She fervently wished she had her gun. With a broken arm, there was little she could do to intervene in whatever was happening.

It was too late anyway. One man was hanging limply in the grasp of the others. The shadowy figures seemed odd, misshapen somehow, and was one of them tall? Then the limp man was dropped and the others ran off down the hall away from her. She couldn't even tell exactly how many there were- three? Four?

Helen fetched a lit candle and went to the man on the floor. It was a middle-aged monk, and there was no doubt he was dead. There were multiple puncture wounds in his neck, and another set on the inside of his left elbow. If he wasn't completely drained of blood, it was close. There was certainly no blood spilled in the hall and only one small smear at the neckline of his robe. And the bite marks were indeed different distances apart, so apparently all the attackers had fed, and from the wounds there had been four of them.

There was nothing she could do for the dead monk. But one thing she needed to do was confirm that Nikola was still in his cell. She left the candle in a holder and screamed once so the body would be discovered, and then took off running. Nikola was fast; if she had any possibility of catching him out, she needed to be at the door to the Abnormal area quickly. Her only hope was that the group of attackers had headed away from the shortest path to Nikola's cell, and that might give her the opportunity to beat him back, if he really was involved in the murder.

When she arrived, the outer door was locked. She tapped on it lightly, hoping someone inside would let her in, but there was no response. The Yetis wouldn't open the door, and she didn't know if there was anyone else inside who might. Nikola could if he was in his cell, but if he was, she hoped he would have the good sense to just stay there.

She waited, and shortly one of the monks with a key to the area came hurrying down the hall. If he was surprised to see here there, he didn't show it, just nodding and unlocking the door. They both went in, the monk checking quickly to make sure nothing imprisoned there had escaped, and Helen going directly to Nikola's cell.

He was there, sitting at his little table working. Was he breathing harder than he should have been? Maybe, she wasn't sure. He looked up as she reached his cell.

"What's happened?" he asked quietly.

"Another murder. I witnessed the end of it, Nikola," she replied, waiting for his reaction.

"You what?" Nikola said in alarm, and got up and went to the bars. "What were you doing out of your room this time of night?"

"How do you know I was out of my room? And keep your voice down, one of the monks is around here somewhere."

"Well I assume it didn't take place at the side of your bed. You did have your chair wedged against the door, right?"

"Right. It happened in the hall just a few feet down from my room and I heard it. Someone took the trouble to douse most of the candles, so I couldn't get a very good look at the attackers, but from the bite marks on the body there were four of them, and the body drained of blood. One of them appeared to be much taller than the others, Nikola."

"And I'm the only one who fits that description? Are you accusing me, Helen?"

"No, not accusing, but asking. You are quite a bit taller than any of the monks I've seen. Were you involved?"

"Of course not, and you're taller than most of the monks too. What are you imagining, that I've turned three other monks into vampires somehow and we're roaming the halls in a pack killing people?"

"It had occurred, yes."

Nikola lowered his head and shook it a little. "It's always going to be like this, isn't it. You're never going to completely trust me."

"I love you, and I want to trust you, but we have quite a long history."

"I know, I know. I guess I haven't always been trustworthy, have I."

"No, not always, but when it counted I knew I could rely on you. You've changed, Nikola, but trust takes time."

Nikola nodded. "Okay, I get that. Believe me, this time I'm innocent."

"I want to believe you. Have you noticed anything here, like an Abnormal getting out of its cage?"

"Sorry, no. And none of these creatures are at all manlike, except the Yetis. You didn't see Yetis, did you?"

"No, I'm quite sure. The attackers didn't move like the Yetis, and they didn't seem to be that heavy, although there was something odd about their shapes."

Helen looked at the tangles of wires and tools in his cell. "How's the gate controller coming?"

"Okay. I have soldering capability now, but there's no way to get the microcircuits I need. It's not going to be a hand-held device." He gestured at his cot, loaded with wires connecting various components. "More like a bed-sized device."

"You're building it on your bed? Where do you sleep?"

"I can catch a nap on the floor." At her concerned look he added, "I don't mind, I really don't."

"All right. There isn't room in there for another bed, but I'll have them bring you some blankets and pillows. Now what do we do about the murder?"

"_We_ don't do anything. You're in no condition to go Abnormal hunting."

"Nikola, you need to stay in your cell."

"I need to be sure you're safe more, to say nothing of your monk buddies."

"Nikola . . ."

"It will be fine, Helen. Believe me, most nights this place is absolutely dead . . . no pun intended. I'll start patrolling at night."

"If they find you out of your cell, the monks will be certain you're guilty."

"I'm in my cell, and they still think I'm guilty, so what's the difference? At least I might be able to stop an attack or even take out the attackers."

"I can look around during the day and see if I can spot anything unusual or something that might explain the odd shapes I saw."

"I wish you wouldn't, but I can't stop you. Just be careful, Helen."

"The same to you, Nikola. Keep in mind there are likely four of them and only one of you, and they might be vampires or some other Abnormal with special abilities. There's no reason why they wouldn't find your blood just as tasty as anyone else's. You mustn't count on being faster or stronger than they are."

"Ah, good point. So if one of us finds them, how do we capture them?"

"It may require reinforcements. There are hundreds of monks and only four of them, I think. I know asking for help isn't your strong suit, Nikola, but please do it if you locate them."

"Okay, I will if I can."

Helen realized he was hedging and gave him an exasperated look, and turned to go. Nikola said, "Maybe you should get that monk you said was around here to escort you back to your room."

"The attackers have already fed, I'll be perfectly safe. I need to get some sleep, and I suggest you do the same if you plan to be up tomorrow night."

Helen had difficulty returning to sleep. The hall outside her room was quiet again, the body removed and the candles relit, but she kept envisioning the struggle she saw. Finally she drifted off.

In the morning she was determined to explore everywhere she was allowed. No one seemed to mind her presence in any of the public areas. She did recall most of the warren from her previous residence, so she didn't get lost. She tried to compare her memories with the current look of the place, but soon gave up. After decades, one rock room didn't look that much different from another, and never had.

Helen also looked carefully at all the monks she saw. None of them seemed deformed or unusual physically. She eventually found the infirmary, and had a conversation with the older monk who had set her arm. While he examined her arm, she led the discussion to physical anomalies, but aside from a monk with a repaired cleft palate, he knew of no one with any deformities, either among the monks or in the valley below.

The monks she saw were going around in pairs or groups. Helen approved of that, so far the attackers had gone after lone men. If everyone were in twos or threes, it might discourage an attack, or at least allow one person to escape and possibly be able to identify the murderers.

In late afternoon she went back to Nikola's cell and reported her failure to find any clues. She told him everywhere she had looked, and recounted her conversation with the medical monk.

They both doubted the attackers would be out that night since they had just fed the night before, but Nikola was determined to search anyway. He spent the wee hours of the morning skulking through the halls, tailing any group of monks he saw. But they all had legitimate business, going to and from their quarters, the great Buddha hall, and later to the kitchen to begin breakfast. After that, Nikola went back to his cell.

Rising early to begin morning feedings, one of the Yetis spotted him as he crossed the large room on the way to his cell and gaped at him. Nikola thought it was Koden, but he wasn't sure. The vampire just nodded at him, as if wandering around loose was perfectly normal. The Yeti trailed him to his cell and watched as Nikola locked himself in.

"You have no key," the Yeti said, clearly concerned by the fact that Nikola was out on his own.

"I don't need one. Look, Koden is it?" At the Yeti's nod, Nikola went on. "I'm not going to hurt anyone; I'm trying to help find the culprits attacking people. I'm different from the monks. I have a better chance of surviving an attack, even fighting back successfully. But the monk boss guy just heard the word 'vampire' and freaked. You know how it is when someone judges you because you're different, don't you?"

Koden replied, "Yes, of course. Tanka and I must stay in this small area so we do not scare the others. But how do I know you speak the truth?"

"You don't, I'm just asking you to trust me. But there are at least three, possibly four attackers out there, so keeping me locked away won't stop the killings, but letting me search for them might. Last night I was here all night, and someone was still murdered. Don't rat me out, let me try to help, please?"

Koden seemed torn. "It is my duty to tell if anything escapes from here. But Master Ras-Pa also says that to be true people Tanka and I must learn to make our own decisions, to make . . . he calls them moral judgments. This is one of those times?"

"Yes, Koden, this is something that you have to decide for yourself."

Koden thought for a moment and then said, "Very well. I decide I will not tell. But I also decide, if you lie to me and harm someone, I will break your neck. Fair?"

Nikola imagined his long thin neck in the grip of the powerful creature in front of him. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but he needed the Yeti's silence. Besides, he wasn't going to hurt anyone. "Fair enough. Try not to make a lot of noise with those pails, okay? I'm going to take a nap."

Koden cocked his head on the side and shrugged, then went to feed the other Abnormals. Nikola knew he would tell Tanka about what had happened and what Koden had decided. The vampire just hoped she would go along with her mate. Otherwise, things could get very sticky for him. Well, worrying wouldn't help.

A/N: Sorry it's been so long between updates- just still busy editing my book, and I managed to accidently chop a small piece off of a typing finger so that is slowing down my typing ability. Thank you for the reviews on Ch 18, VampireRemember, Irish-Coffee, and Jaydee B Bailey.


	20. Chapter 20

It was afternoon and Nikola was working on the gate controller when Helen stopped by to visit him. He took a break and went over to the bars when he saw the serious expression on her face.

"What's up?" he asked.

"There's been a rather odd incident. Two monks were bitten by mottled gray snakes, and both envenomed. They managed to kill one serpent but the other escaped into a hole."

"Are these gray snakes like the ones we encountered in the city?"

"They appear to be, yes, I examined the one they killed. Both monks are ill, but are expected to survive."

"So what's so odd? There are snakes in the mountains, and it's warm enough in here for them to be active."

"I lived here for decades, and never saw a snake in the monastery. I started looking closely as I walked through the halls and I'm suddenly noticing a lot of cracks and holes in the floors and lower walls."

"So the snakes are relatively recent? Helen, snakes don't tunnel through rock. Mice or rats could have enlarged some natural faults and the snakes followed the rodents looking for food."

"I suppose, but I talked to one of the monks who saw the attack, and that's how he described it, as an attack. The snakes weren't cornered or in any danger from the monks, they actually slithered at the men and bit them."

"Okay, I admit that's not usual snake behavior, but what do we know about this particular species?"

"Very little, really. The one snake in that ruined city bit both of us, so they are apparently quite aggressive. I examined the dead one, and except for the irregular coloring and the fact that the head is a bit larger than other snake types, there didn't seem to be anything unusual."

"Well if the venom isn't toxic enough to kill, then I say we forget about weird snakes and concentrate on getting home. My device should be ready tomorrow."

"Are you sure it will work? Can you test it somehow?"

"It will work, and I don't need to test it. Assuming the laws of the physics don't change between now and when we get to Bhalasaam, it has to work."

Helen just nodded. Nikola generally knew whether an invention would work or not when he envisioned it in his head and sometimes he didn't even bother to build it to check, he was that sure.

She said, "I'll talk to Doug about transportation. We're going to need a wagon to carry that thing."

"Yeah, and if he wants us to keep the Yetis out of sight . . ."

"Maybe two wagons, yaks to pull them . . ."

"Which means a parade, and we're trying to keep a low profile."

"So we'll also need a cover story."

"Right. Had any luck tracking down our murderers?"

"No, you?"

"Nada."

"So perhaps we shouldn't leave just yet."

"Helen, we're not the police. Danny is waiting for us."

"Yes, and I miss him, but . . ."

"Come on, these monks managed their own lives before we got here, they'll figure it out themselves. Even if it involves Abnormals, they're not totally clueless; they've got a cavern full of them."

"It just seems like we're running away."

"Well Dougie might miss _you_, but he'll be glad to see my back."

"Keep working, I'll let you know about the transportation," Helen said as she left.

Nikola finished the controller. His biggest concern was damage in transit. Well, he'd take tools and spare parts with and repair it when they got to the gate if he had to.

He sat down on his pile of spare blankets on the floor. There was something bothering him about those snakes, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. He looked around the walls and floor of his cell carefully, moving things around to check every inch, but didn't see any way a mouse or a snake could get in, except through the bars.

The yetis brought him dinner- blood of some sort, but they didn't seem to know what kind. Nikola drank a little, and found it wasn't as bad as he expected, in fact, it was quite tasty. He finished the cup and felt better than he had in days. He'd have Helen find out what it was; maybe he wouldn't starve before they got out of Tibet after all.

He napped for a bit, and then awoke late at night. Nikola magnetically unlocked his cell and did a tour of the whole Abnormal cavern, checking for any way a snake could get into the area, but didn't see anything obvious. Well, time to go hunt the killers. They hadn't fed last night, so they might be out tonight.

He found few monks in the halls, and always in a group of at least two or three. But then he spotted something that caught his attention. There were two monks walking together, but very slowly, almost as if they were—sleepwalking? Nikola got closer, and saw both of them had bandages on one of their legs, and they were each carrying a lit candle.

He immediately leapt to the conclusion that these were the monks who had been bitten by the snakes. If so, they should be in bed, not wandering around, but their demeanor was so odd, he decided not to alert anyone. Instead he followed them to see where they were going.

They left the high-traffic areas and descended stairs down to an area below ground. It was very quiet, and the only light came from the candles the monks carried, there weren't any along the walls at all. The path they took twisted and turned, but the monks didn't hesitate or seem to be aware of Nikola's presence. They didn't look back or anywhere except straight ahead.

Nikola was starting to have a bad feeling about what he was doing, being alone in a strange area going toward who-knows-what. The monks made a sudden turn and passed through an arch and down a broad stone staircase into a big cavern of some sort; the walls weren't visible within range of the light.

The vampire stopped at the arch. The monks and their puny lights were receding away from him, but there were strange scraping noises coming from ahead, and a smell that he didn't like at all. Nikola vamped and eased down the stairs carefully.

There were other figures. The two monks had joined others that appeared oddly misshapen, but the lighting was dim and details were hard to see. One person seemed to have one shoulder much higher than the other, but then the additional height _moved_. Nikola realized that perhaps they weren't misshapen; perhaps they were carrying something, something alive that moved by itself.

He needed to get out of there. He should run and get help, come back with an army. But he couldn't move. The group of figures in the distance lit more candles and several of them came toward him. All he had to do was stand there, and he would know, he would understand what was happening, and he would be able to identify these people. But then what would happen? He was a vampire; he could defend himself, right? But he still didn't seem to be able to move anyway. If he couldn't run, how could he fight? Nikola was suddenly afraid in a way he hadn't been in a very long time.

They came closer; Nikola saw a gray mottled snake slither past the group through the light without anyone paying it much attention. The light got brighter, and Nikola could see . . . green eyes, strange green eyes . . .

He woke lying in his cell, with the image of those eyes in his mind. Nikola sat up, disoriented. How had he gotten here? The yetis were doing their morning rounds, so hours had passed. He couldn't remember anything except there had been those monks moving toward him, the eyes, and then he was here.

Nikola checked himself over. It didn't seem as if he had been attacked, although by now any small injuries like fang marks would have healed. But if he had lost blood, he would be hungry and thirsty, and he wasn't. So apparently they hadn't hurt him. Why not?

He needed to remember what had happened. He was a rational being with an excellent memory; if his conscious mind were blocked somehow, then his subconscious should still know what had happened. The fact that he couldn't recall anything frightened him; he'd always lived in his mind, prided himself on his mental abilities, and not having control over himself was . . . should be impossible.

Nikola made himself comfortable, sitting cross-legged on his blankets and leaning back against the wall. He closed his eyes, and tried to meditate. He would remember, he had to be able to remember those hours of his life, he had to, for Helen's safety and his own sanity.

"Nikola?"

He opened his eyes and looked up at Helen outside the bars. He'd have to meditate later. He got up and faced her.

"Doug is setting up an expedition for us to some very remote areas, ostensibly a Buddhist outreach. It will take us close to our goal, and when we turn off toward Bhalasaam there most likely won't be anyone around. In any case we'll be so far off the beaten path we'll be in the vampire city before anyone could report on us. We'll have wagons and yaks to pull them, and a dozen monks or so to guide us and handle everything."

"When?"

"Tomorrow. I keep trying to find any trace of the murderers during the day, but I haven't seen anything that makes me suspicious. Did you find anything last night?"

Nikola froze. He should tell Helen. He wanted to tell Helen. But he couldn't seem to open his mouth and get the words out, just like he hadn't been able to run last night. What the hell was going on? She raised her eyebrows at his lack of response and he shook his head a little without wanting to.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Fine, uh . . . fine. I was just going to meditate for a while."

"I expected you to be happy we're getting out of here so soon, but you don't look very happy. What's going on?"

Part of him was trying to lie to her again, and the rest wanted to tell her the truth. He stood frozen once again, unable to do either, while he struggled internally.

Helen was looking at him closely. Nikola usually had a glib response to everything, yet suddenly he seemed tongue-tied. "I know you well enough to know something is going on inside that head of yours. Spit it out."

"Ah, I can't say anything," Nikola replied, making it sound as if he would be betraying a confidence or something of the sort, rather than he literally couldn't say anything about what happened. He wanted her to realize he was under some sort of compulsion, but he couldn't quite do it.

She considered him a moment, and then said, "All right, I'll trust you, Nikola. If there's something you can't talk about, then I'll accept that. I'll just assume it's not important, because if it was I know you'd tell me." She looked for signs of guilt, but he just looked unhappy and maybe a little twitchy. Well, if it was something she needed to know, eventually he'd confess.

_Don't_ he thought_, not this time. I'm not in control. Crap, she'll never trust me again if I don't tell her._ But Helen had already walked away. And it wasn't like he hadn't tried.

Still, what was there to tell her, really? He'd seen some monks acting oddly, that's all. No, that wasn't all. Something had messed with his mind, and it was very, very dangerous. People were dying, and he couldn't act, he couldn't even speak about what he did know, and now he was mentally arguing with himself. He felt like he was losing his mind, but the image of those green eyes told him there was an outside influence at work.

They'd be leaving tomorrow. Maybe once he was away from here, he'd be able to tell her. She could tell the monks and they could take word back to the monastery, and the monks would handle it.

Meanwhile, he needed to remember the rest of what happened. He needed to know what- or who—had messed and was still messing with his mind. He was Nikola Tesla, genius and vampire, and no one should be able to do that to him.

He sat down, closed his eyes, relaxed, and concentrated on what had happened, mentally recreating every moment since he started following the two monks. He recalled every turn, the arch, the stairs, the sounds, and the odd smell. Nikola strained to make out details of the approaching monks with their candles, tried to see exactly what it was that made them look so strange, but the green eyes loomed in his vision instead.

In reality, no one had been that close to him at the point he blanked out, so the vision of the eyes must have been placed in his mind to block out what he actually had seen. It was definitely a deliberate blocking of his memory, undoubtedly by some sort of Abnormal since no human could do something like that. But he still had tonight before they left the monastery, he could go back and try again.

Helen felt uneasy throughout the day. She wandered farther through the cave system, looking for anything unusual. She did notice that in some areas there seemed to be many more places that could be harboring rodents or snakes than in others. The lowest levels, away from more populated areas seemed to be the most riddled.

No one had been attacked last night again; two nights in a row upped the odds that tonight it would be very dangerous to be out of her room. In fact, when a monk brought her dinner, there was a note with it from Doug saying he had ordered everyone to stay in their rooms if at all possible. Large parties would be out in the halls and public areas searching for the attackers.

Nikola didn't get a note with his dinner, since the monks thought he was locked in and couldn't go out anyway. Instead, Tanka informed him personally when she brought it. Again, the blood provided was tasty. When the vampire asked about the source, he was shocked to learn it had been donated by one of the monks. He wanted to know what monk, and why, but the yeti didn't know.

He disregarded the warning. He and Helen would be leaving tomorrow. Even if he got caught skulking around, he doubted they would do anything much to him except be doubly glad when he left. He napped until late, then unlocked his cell and went out, vamping before he left the Abnormal cave area. Nikola needed to find those green eyes, and see what they were attached to without them seeing him.

A/N: Irish-coffee, thank you for the review.


	21. Chapter 21

Nikola moved quickly through open spaces, but stopped and listened behind pillars and at doorways. There were very few monks in the halls except for groups of six or more. He had no trouble hearing them long before they could see him and he avoided them easily.

He headed out of the more populated areas, back toward the arch and the big cavern. He had to find out what was in that cavern and who had placed that vision of green eyes in his mind to block his memory. Meditating hadn't pierced the block.

Nikola had thought to bring candles with him and when he reached the end of the lighted halls he lit one of his own and continued onward, down stairs, through halls, around a bend, and there was the arch. He slowed and proceeded cautiously.

The odor was still there, but the odd scraping sound had ceased. He went down the stairs into the large cavern holding the candle out before him and moved cautiously across the floor toward where he thought he had seen the monks meet.

There was something lying on the floor in front of him. Nikola bent down to pick it up, but stopped before he touched it. It was a shed snake skin, or at least a piece of one. But from the size and shape it could only have come off of a huge creature. Somehow, that did not surprise him. He stepped over it and continued on.

He spotted other shreds of skin as he proceeded, some from a huge creature but others smaller, down to something an inch or so in diameter. That meant a lot of snakes used this cavern. Why hadn't he seen any yet?

Nikola heard something moving off to one side and stopped and listened. If the snakes truly were aggressive he could be attacked. He'd survived one bite, but it had incapacitated him. If he was bitten and collapsed here, he could be bitten and envenomed beyond his vampire body's capacity to heal. That meant his life was actually in danger in a way it hadn't been in a very long time. He found it both frightening and exciting at the same time.

The sound didn't seem to be coming any closer, but he heard another scraping sound off to the other side. Nikola was fairly sure he was hearing scales on stone. He should go back, get out of the cavern before it was too late. But he needed to know what was going on, what had messed with his head. He went forward, increasing his pace.

"Tesla," an accented voice said from in front of him. He stopped and two monks walked into the area lit by his candle.

"You speak English?" Nikola asked, surprised.

They shook their heads, and just stood waiting. There was a louder scraping noise from behind them, something heavy, something big coming up on them. The monks didn't move or seem concerned.

The bulbous head of a huge snake came into view, followed by its slithering body. Nikola saw its large, green, preternaturally intelligent eyes as it crawled up one monk and over to the second, distributing its weight between the two men. They stood stolidly, but Nikola could see it was a strain for them to support the creature.

On the second monk, the snake wrapped itself around his torso, then up on his shoulders, and finally rested with its head rising above the monk's. In silhouette, the monk would appear tall and misshapen .

A third monk followed the snake and picked up the tail, easing the burden on the other two. All three men stretched their mouths open wide, slender fangs folding down off their palates, and then closed them again, the fangs refolding- a demonstration, but of what Nikola wasn't sure. The snake flicked its tongue at Nikola, not touching him but coming close enough to make him want to step back.

The monks smiled at him. The one hosting the snake's head spoke.

"Yes, I am what you call an abnormal creature. My name is Jade. These, my slaves, speak for me since my mouth is not shaped to form your language sounds. I take the words from you, almost my slave, and they mouth them. Why are you only almost my slave?"

Nikola's mind raced as he tried to comprehend the situation. "Because I was bitten, or was it in the blood I was given to drink?"

"Some of my offspring carry the same venom as mine, but unfortunately, none has inherited my intelligence, not yet. Injected, the venom is a neurotoxin, not to paralyze, but to give me control. When you came here close to me, I felt you through my son's venom, and took you. The blood was to show you the advantage of joining with me, for without it now you will crave it."

"I'm not your slave and I never will be," Nikola stated more boldly than he felt.

"No, not yet. You are already partially under my control, but you are not like the others, already a blood drinker from a different source. We will see about the 'never'."

The three monks stepped forward toward the vampire, moving easily in concert with the snake connecting them. Nikola found he was unable to move. Even though he was not exactly Jade's slave, the snake could control him physically, at least when they were so close.

"What do you want?" the vampire asked desperately, stalling.

The snake stretched its head forward so its face was inches from Nikola's. "I want more- more slaves, more comfort, more food, more offspring. I have seen in your mind other places with these things, and you can take me there."

Nikola shook his head and did his best to dissuade the snake. "It won't work, Jade. Those places have more people who will see you, find out what you are, and kill you."

"You will help me, Nikola Tesla. I see into your mind more clearly now, and whether you are my slave or only a servant, you will show me how to be safe. Last time I merely blocked your mind, but now I realize you can do much for me. I do not know if my own venom will work better than my son's, but let us see."

Frozen in place, Nikola could do nothing to stop the creature. He did the one thing he could without moving- he vamped, eyes going black and red, fangs sprouting in his mouth and claws on his hands. Jade hesitated.

"What a fascinating creature you are, Tesla. You shall be mine." The huge snake opened its own mouth, and slid its fangs into the vampire's neck. Nikola felt only a mild sting, and then the poison spreading into his body as he weakened from the snake drinking his blood. It was over in a few seconds.

The two additional monks that had been recently bitten emerged into the lighted area. Nikola still couldn't move. One of them approached him and held out his arm in front of the vampire's mouth.

Nikola was hungry, and he wanted that tasty blood that carried a hint of the snake's venom in it. Jade was right, with the man's arm so close, he could smell the enticing scent of it and he did crave it. But he resisted, refusing to open his mouth to drink.

But the snake gave him no choice. It made him open his mouth, made the monk insert his arm, made Nikola close his fangs lightly into the flesh. Blood in his mouth, Nikola swallowed but kept his mind blank. The snake didn't need to know about his feeders or anything else about what he really was or could do.

Jade released him. Nikola took the arm and licked it perfunctorily, cleaning off the remaining blood and clotting the wounds with his saliva. With one hand he pushed the monk out of the way, and with the other he swiped his claws at the snake, but narrowly missed. Jade jerked back and hissed angrily.

Nikola found himself once again under the creature's control, but the venom in his system was starting to affect him. His vision dimmed, his knees sagged, and he was out before he hit the floor.

He awoke in his cell. By the sounds in the large Abnormal cavern, it was time for the morning feedings. Nikola started to sit up and pain lanced through his head. He felt like he had the king of hangovers, which he resented since he hadn't had the pleasure of getting drunk on wine first.

But he remembered everything that had happened, at least up until the venom had taken him over. Jade could invade his mind, could control him physically to some extent, but he wasn't her slave and didn't intend to be. Nikola wasn't sure how he could avoid it, though. The best he could do at the moment was to hide as much information from her as he could.

Helen arrived with a group of monks. She was dressed in her own clothes, with monk's clothing over them. They let him out of the cell, and some of the monks watched him warily as two went in and picked up his cot with the oversized gate controller on it. Two other monks removed the legs, and the cot was carried out. Nikola went back into his cell and put his own vest on over the clothing the monks had made for him, picked up a bag of tools and one of spare parts, and then he and Helen followed the monks through the halls.

They went down and off in a direction neither was overly familiar with. Eventually they came to an outer door and proceeded out into a small courtyard of sorts up against the mountain. Nikola squinted in the bright light; it was making his headache worse.

There were many other monks there and two enclosed wagons drawn by yaks. The cot was loaded into one, and another slightly larger cot was placed standing over it, protecting and partially concealing the device.

The wagon itself was barely large enough to hold it, and was crammed with bags of rice, blankets on built-in shelving, cooking equipment and various supplies. There was a small space to walk in next to the cot, and a chest at the far end that could be used as a seat.

The yetis were there too. Koden and Tonga were dressed in robes with cowls over their heads, but there was no doubt what they were even with their faces nearly invisible. They stood behind the second wagon and waited.

The head monk arrived. Doug spoke for a moment with the yetis, who then climbed into the second wagon. He and another monk came over to the Westerners.

"Helen, I am sorry to see you go. Perhaps you will come again, and perhaps I will be here still, but perhaps I will only be dust by then."

Helen just nodded at the truth of the statement. "Doug, thank you for your hospitality." Nikola grimaced a little at that, he hadn't exactly enjoyed his stay in the cell. Helen continued, "I hope you are able to discover who has been attacking your people and stop the killing. If there is anything I can do from the Sanctuary, please let me know."

Doug gave her a small bow in gratitude at the offer, but they both knew it was unlikely she would be able to assist him from so far away. He said, "Thank you." He turned to the monk with him and said, "This is Masra, he speaks English and will be leading the group. He knows the location of the caverns you wish to reach and will see you safely there."

Masra bowed slightly and said, "You and the yetis must remain in the wagons during the day so you are not seen. We will camp out of sight of others and I will also try to pull aside during the day to give you the opportunity to leave the wagon, but that may not always be possible. Patience is necessary."

"We'll keep a low profile," Helen agreed. Nikola looked around during the conversation and spotted a monk who looked like one of Jade's slaves, but the man turned away and he wasn't sure. The vampire scanned the crowd and thought he spotted another one of the snake's servants as well, but there was nothing he could do about it.

"If you are seen by the wrong person, there will be reports made, and soldiers may come. We cannot move quickly."

Helen and Nikola just nodded. The man was anxious for their safety which was good; it meant he would be careful, as long as he wasn't too fearful to act sensibly.

There was a stair hanging off the rear of their tall wagon leading to the door. Nikola went up first and offered a hand to Helen, who didn't actually need any help but took it anyway. They had both been trained in politeness in a different age. She closed the door behind her and they found themselves in the dim interior. There were no windows, but there were several small hatches that could be opened for a view of the outside. The one facing forward over the yaks was open.

Nikola could smell snake as soon as he entered the wagon. The odor was far too mild for a human to detect, especially with the other scents in the wagon. Well Doug's problem was likely solved, if Jade and her slaves were traveling with them. Unfortunately, that meant their problems were only beginning.


	22. Chapter 22

It wasn't long before they were on their way. There were quite a few monks walking ahead of the wagons, then Helen and Nikola's wagon, and finally the one carrying the yetis. They wound down along the mountain, eventually coming to a wooden gate that was opened for the procession to pass through, and closed behind it.

It was a very slow way to travel. The monks were in no hurry, some stopping at every house or hut, pausing to talk to other travelers along the way. There wasn't much to see out of the little hatches in the wagon, just the countryside creeping by and monks. The two Westerners soon tired of it.

Helen was surprised when Nikola began searching their wagon. She knew he had an insatiable curiosity, but what could he possibly hope to find? Well, she was bored so he must be as well.

Nikola needed to know where the odor of snake was coming from. Was it in the wagon with them? Were they carrying anything a snake might eat? He looked in every container, poked and felt each bag of rice, ran a hand over every blanket checking for something hidden. He didn't find anything at all interesting.

He just shrugged at Helen's questioning look. "Are you quite done?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm done."

"What was the point of that?"

"I just wanted to see what we had with us."

"And you found . . ."

"Just supplies for the trip."

"What were you hoping to find?"

"Well, something to do would have been nice."

"If you can manage to restrain yourself and be quiet for a while, I'm going to meditate."

"Fine," Nikola said, with a wave of his hand. Helen sat cross-legged on the cot and closed her eyes, and he perched on the chest. He could still smell snake, it had to be close by. Nikola closed his eyes and visualized the wagon from the outside.

The walls were thin around the doorway and around the hatches as well, so there wasn't any way for a snake to hide there. The roof wasn't much, just boards over braces. But the floor was solid. He thought about the floor.

When they had gone up the step in the back, the bottom of the wagon had hung down considerably below the level of the inside floor. Was it just edging or was there a concealed space? They weren't moving very fast, so he decided to take a look.

Nikola quietly opened the back door, lay prone on the floor, and pushed the top half of his body out, using the step to keep from falling out entirely. He lowered his head until he could see the underside of the wagon. It appeared the actual bottom of the wagon was lower than the inside floor by a considerable amount. He ran a hand over it a little and just felt rough wood.

"Nikola!"

The vampire started and almost fell out of the wagon. He hurriedly got himself back inside, stood up, and brushed off his clothes.

Helen said, "Have you lost your mind? What in the world were you doing?"

"Um, just checking to see how solidly this thing is built."

"By hanging upside down out of the back?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Nikola replied, squirming a little. Jade wasn't going to let him tell her the truth. He wasn't absolutely sure she was under the floor, but both wagons had looked the same to him so she was probably in one or the other. In any case, he knew she wasn't far since she was affecting what he could do and say.

Helen shook her head. "We are going to be trapped in here with nothing to do for hours at a time. Please settle down."

He was still standing there awkwardly, and she felt a little sorry for him. She could handle long periods of quiet inactivity, but she wasn't sure he could. "Do you want to play a game?" she asked.

"No, I don't want to play a game," he said derisively. Nikola went over and sat down on the chest. It held medical supplies, tea, and herbs. "Why don't you teach me Tibetan? That could actually be useful."

"Well, I suppose that would use up a lot of hours. It's a complex language, with different word forms for different relative ranks of the speaker and listener."

"Good, maybe I won't be quite so totally bored out of my mind." _And maybe Jade will get bored and stop paying attention._

They spent the next few hours with Helen giving Nikola an introductory lesson in the local language. In early afternoon, they noticed the wagon start rolling and jouncing a lot more. Looking out of the little hatches, they saw they had left the road and gone over a rise to shallow valley. There, the procession stopped and Masra opened the door to their conveyance.

He said, "We will stay here for a little while, so you may come out for a time. We will make you a little rice, if you are hungry?"

Helen indicated she was and she and Nikola got out of the wagon. The yeti's wagon was there too, and Koden and Tanka were out and stretching. There were a few monks as well tending to the yaks, but most were nowhere to be seen.

"Where is everyone?" Helen asked their guide.

"They go about in ones and twos and speak of the ways of Buddha. Those they converse with will give them food, and bring themselves good fortune. All will meet again at the place we camp tonight."

They spent a pleasant hour. Helen ate along with the monks who were present, the yaks were watered, and Nikola examined the wagons as unobtrusively as he could. He found a place on the sides of both of the wagons that looked like small doors that would open into the inter-floor space, but he didn't try to open either. He was pretty sure he would prefer door number three to the two available to him. Besides, Jade wouldn't allow it, not in the middle of the day in plain view of monks not under her control.

Koden and Tanka obviously reveled in being outside in the sun again, gamboling about more like the great apes they resembled than people. Their laughter was an odd sound, not quite human, but more of a contented rumble that made Helen smile to hear.

Nikola walked over and said, "Hey, Koden, how's your wagon?"

The yeti paused and looked puzzled. "It is the same as your wagon."

"Does it smell all right?" That was as close as Nikola could come to asking if it smelled like snake.

Koden snorted. "After cavern with many Abnormals, it smells very good, especially with hatches open. Does your wagon smell all right?" he asked, obviously trying to be polite without understanding why he was asking the question.

"Oh sure, it's fine, just a little different."

Koden just shrugged and went back to playing with Tanka. Nikola was disappointed; he had hoped to be able to pin down which wagon held Jade. Walking around the two wagons didn't tell him, they both smelled about the same to him from the outside.

After the allotted hour, they resumed their trek and Helen continued the language lesson, but by late afternoon she could see Nikola was becoming restless.

"Nikola, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, I'm getting hungry and just wondering what the monks plan to feed me. I very sincerely hope it's not yak blood."

"It's going to be weeks before we reach the gate. You will have to manage with what is available, just as I will."

"I know."

Helen could tell there was something else bothering him, but decided to let it go for now. If it was important, she trusted him to tell her when he was ready. The wagon started rocking more heavily and they both knew the procession was pulling off the road. Unlike the earlier stop, they traveled that way for a good twenty minutes before coming to a halt.

They got out of the wagon and found themselves on a large fairly flat area with a rocky cliff to one side and a steep boulder-strewn declivity on the other. The sun was on the horizon and monks were still straggling in behind them.

Several small fires were lit, and pots and supplies unloaded from the wagons. The monks made a simple dinner for themselves and Helen. Nikola sat off to the side, pouting, since there didn't seem to be anything for him.

A monk he recognized approached from the darkness away from any of the fires and gestured to him to follow. Nikola did, uneasy about what he suspected was about to happen. Jade's slave led him to behind the wagons and offered his arm.

Nikola hesitated. He was hungry and wanted the blood the monk offered with its touch of venom, but he knew every time he drank it he got more addicted to it. There was a sudden scraping sound and he turned to see the little side door on his wagon open.

Jade slithered out, lifted her head and flicked her tongue at him. The monk in front of him said, "Eat, servant, or you will grow weak."

Nikola shook his head and waited for the compulsion that would make him take the blood, but it didn't come.

The monk spoke for Jade again. "Too bad, my venom compels you no better than my son's. I could force you to eat, but eventually your own hunger will drive you to it." The monk lowered his arm and the other four monks who were slaved to the snake approached. Jade climbed up on them and they went off into the darkness.

Nikola checked out both of the compartments under the wagons. The one under his wagon had straw bedding and smelled strongly of Jade. When he opened the one under the yeti's wagon he saw movement and quickly shut the door. There was at least one smaller snake under there, maybe more.

The vampire returned to the fire where Helen sat and plunked down on the ground next to her. She looked over at him and asked, "Is everything all right?"

He nodded and said, "Yeah," but she could tell by the tension in his body that it really wasn't.

"Did you eat?"

He shook his head and said, "I hate yak blood" as if it had been offered and he'd refused.

She finished her meal and stood up. "Let's go for a walk before it becomes pitch black out here. I need to stretch my legs."

"No!" Nikola said, jumping to his feet. "I mean, these guys are going to be moving again at sunrise, we should get some sleep."

Helen was getting concerned about his behavior. "Nikola, if you know something . . ."

He looked off to the side, at the ground, and then shook his head. He finally looked at her, and reached his hand out. She took it with her good hand and he said, "No walk, not tonight, okay?"

Helen sighed and said quietly, "All right, Nikola, but please, tell me why."

"I can't. I would if I could, just trust me?"

"Why can't you tell me? Is it something you're ashamed of?"

"No. I can't . . . I just can't, Helen."

She sighed again. Whatever was going on, she would have to pry it out of him, but not tonight. The camp was getting quiet, and continued conversation would attract attention and annoy monks settling down to sleep, even if most of them couldn't understand the words.

Two monks were taking some blankets out of the wagon and putting back cleaned cooking and eating utensils. Helen and Nikola waited for a few minutes until they were done, Nikola not letting go of her hand. She was starting to get a very bad feeling about what the night would bring.

When the monks were done, they got into the wagon. Helen knew Nikola wouldn't let her sleep on the floor, and was already getting down blankets to make his own sleeping place. She took off some of her outer clothing and got into the cot while he spread a blanket next to it in the little walkway.

Once they were both settled, Helen whispered, "Nikola? We're not done talking about this. In the morning we're going to continue this conversation and you're going to tell me everything you know. Do you understand?"

Nikola pretended to be asleep.


	23. Chapter 23

They awoke in the morning to a babble of excited voices. Helen and Nikola quickly dressed and went out to see what was happening. Nikola suspected he already knew.

Most of the monks were on the edge of the declivity, looking down into it. A couple of monk's heads came into view, and then four of them emerged carrying a fifth. Masra and Helen went to examine the one being carried as soon as he was lowered to the ground.

There was no doubt the man was dead. He had multiple wounds from pairs of fangs and to Helen it looked like he had been drained of blood or nearly so. It took only a few seconds before everyone had turned to look accusingly at the Western vampire.

Nikola said, "I didn't do it," to the monks, and to Helen he added, "I really didn't. I was with you in the wagon all night."

_Except when you went off by yourself into the darkness._ But Helen nodded and confirmed his claim. "That's true; Nikola was sleeping next to me all night. I would have woken if he had left the wagon."

But Masra was shaking his head, and all of the monks looked angry. The expedition leader said, "He comes and there are murders at the monastery. Now he is with us, and there is a murder here."

Helen realized the monks were ready to drive away her friend. She needed to stop them now before anything happened. "Masra, Nikola did not attack this man. Look at the bite marks. Nikola, open your mouth and show Masra your fangs. They don't match."

Nikola was scowling at her; he hated displaying his vampire side to children, he knew he was scary and frightening the monks even more didn't seem like a good idea to him.

"Nikola, now!" Helen said, glaring at him.

With an exasperated sigh, he vamped and displayed his impressive mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. Most of the monks recoiled from him and muttered to each other. They had known intellectually what he was, but this was the first time they had actually seen Nikola in vampire mode. Helen knew there was a primal fear deeply embedded in the human psyche of creatures like vampires; it was a survival reaction, and she had to get the monks past it to rationality again.

"Look at the distance between his canines and look at the bite marks, Masra. Most of them are too wide apart for Nikola to have made them. This pair on the arm could be Nikola's except the holes are far too large."

Helen turned to her friend and pushed her sleeve up awkwardly on her good arm. "You didn't feed yesterday. Do it now."

Nikola backed up a half step and shook his head. Feeding was something private, and feeding from the woman he loved was almost sexual in nature, and not something he wanted to demonstrate in front of a bunch of gawking monks.

Helen move close to him and said, "I know this is difficult for you, but you must. Once they see the marks left on my arm, they will know you couldn't possibly have killed their friend."

She could see the internal conflict on his face, but in the end her rational argument won out. That was something she loved about him; he could be highly emotional, but logic usually prevailed.

Nikola took her arm and started to place his mouth on it. Helen stopped him. "Nikola, extend your feeders so they can see them. Masra, look at these, this is what Nikola actually uses to take blood, not his fangs. All right, go ahead, Nikola."

The vampire glared at her, but obeyed her. Once everyone had seen his feeders, he retracted them and bent again to her arm. Once his mouth was in place, he extended his feeders to a vein and drank.

He took very little. Helen's blood tasted like no one else's, probably because of the Source Blood. But this was a demonstration for outsiders and he definitely didn't want to get carried away. He retracted his fangs, licked the pinprick wounds to make sure the bleeding had stopped, and pulled away. Nikola devamped, spun on his heel, and walked away.

Helen went to Masra and thrust her arm under his nose. "Take a good look. Does anything there look in the least like the wounds on the murdered man?"

The monk made a show of carefully examining Helen's arm, but everyone could see that the marks on her arm were just tiny pink dots, nothing at all like the fang marks on the dead monk. Having proved her point, Helen followed Nikola; time for some answers.

He hadn't gone far, just a few strides on the other side of the wagons. He had his back to her, his arms crossed, and she knew he was angry with her for forcing him to feed from her in public. But she'd been patient with him long enough.

"All right, time to come clean, Nikola. What is going on?"

He turned to face her. "I thought we just proved that I had nothing to do with that monk's death."

"You didn't kill him, but you're involved in this somehow, I know you are."

Nikola stood silent. He could feel pressure from Jade to say nothing about her or the other snakes with them, and he couldn't think of any way to explain what was going on without including the source of the problem.

Helen came close and looked into his eyes. "Talk to me, Nikola. I hate it when you keep secrets."

"I haven't attacked anyone, I haven't killed anyone, and beyond that, I really have nothing else to say. You're just going to have to trust me."

"When you talk to me, when you're honest with me, I do trust you. But our long history has shown that when you go silent, when you refuse to share what you're thinking, it's only because you know I wouldn't approve of whatever you're planning. Please, Nikola, just tell me and we'll work it out, together."

"I'm not planning anything, other than a way to get home and be with you and Danny." _And without Jade or her little snake friends._

"Oh, Nikola," Helen said sadly, with a shake of her head. She didn't believe him, and if he wouldn't tell her the truth, then perhaps they were back on one of those paths that would lead them to part again.

Helen walked away to get ready for the day. The dead man had been wrapped and several monks were preparing to take him back to the monastery. Others were making food, and some were cleaning up around the camp, shaking out and folding blankets and returning them to the wagons. Helen went over to see if she could help.

Nikola stood off to the side, watching the activity, arms crossed, angry at Jade for causing a slowly widening rift with the mother of his child. While they were so close to each other, the snake's control over him was much stronger. If he could separate himself from the wagons during the day . . . but Helen would have to be with him in order for him to be able to tell her everything, and he certainly couldn't leave her to travel with the snakes by herself. Which would mean the two of them going back to wandering around on their own in the mountains, and Helen with a broken arm . . . no, they needed the controller and he couldn't lug that around with them so they had to stay with the wagon.

Which meant being close to Jade. For now, he couldn't think of any alternative, but once they reached the gate, he had to find a way to get the two of them—no, the four of them including the Yetis—through and leave Jade behind. With a few thousand miles between him and the big Abnormal snake, he would be free of her control and could tell Helen everything.

Of course Helen would insist on the Yetis coming too, so he couldn't just grab Helen, flip the levers, and run.

Masra came over to him and bowed slightly. "I apologize to you for my accusation. You could not have made the wounds."

"No, I couldn't, nor would I. You might want to check the facts before jumping to conclusions next time."

"You believe this will happen again?"

Nikola hesitated. He hadn't meant it in that sense, but perhaps in correcting the monk's understanding he could slip in a word or two of warning.

"It happened repeatedly in the monastery." There, a simple statement of fact, with no interference from Jade.

But Masra took it as he intended. The monk nodded and said, "Yes, it continues. To stop the attacks we stayed together in groups. We will do that again. Thank you, Mister Tesla."

The procession leader went back to getting them on their way again. Helen went back toward their wagon and Nikola hastily joined her. Inside, he got her to sit on the chest while he carefully lifted the cot and moved it into the aisle, uncovering his oversized controller.

"Helen, I want to show you how this works," he said, crawling on the cot so he could reach all of it.

Helen smiled a little; Nikola did so like to show off his inventions.

"I planned to energize it myself, but just in case, this wire can be hooked up to a power source instead. If Heinrich has rewired Balasaam, then just wire it into the grid. But if not, and you have to hook it up to that overpowered tunnel your father made for me, then move this lever here, and you'll engage the step-down function so it won't blow the wiring."

"Me? And where will you be? Why wouldn't you be there to power it?"

"I do plan to be there, but, you know, just in case. Once it's got juice, this switch will turn the gate on, and this one will select for the Sanctuary. You can adjust the frequency with this knob if you have to. I'm sure it's close, but I had no way to test the output frequency so it may not be exactly on the nose, but it sounded right to me."

"It will be fine. If it needs a little fine-tuning, I know you can handle it. You will be there to handle it, won't you?"

Nikola didn't answer, just got off of the cot, picked it up and carefully placed it over his device again.

As he straightened, Helen touched his arm lightly and he turned to her.

"Nikola, I don't know what's going on, but I want you to come home with me. I need you now, Danny needs you too. I don't want us to be separated; I want us to raise our child together."

"I want that too. Believe me, Helen, I will do everything in my power to return to the Sanctuary with you."

"But you don't think it's going to happen, do you." At his lack of response, Helen's eyes moistened and she turned away. "Oh, Nikola."

"Okay, I may not be able to come with you through the gate. I can't go into details, I really can't. But if I have to take the long way home I will. And I will get home, Helen, one way or the other, I swear it."

"All right, Nikola," Helen replied, but he knew by the tone of her voice she didn't believe him.

The wagon jolted as they began the day's journey. Helen resumed her seat on the cot and Nikola his on the chest, and she gave him a language lesson as if everything was fine.

Later, while Helen meditated, Nikola sat and planned. There was no way he could separate himself from Jade, he had to protect Helen, and she wouldn't leave the yetis behind, so he had to include them in his plan too.

But Jade by herself wasn't all-powerful; she created human slaves because she needed them. Together, Jade and her humans were the apex predator in this environment. But her servants by themselves weren't the most dangerous creatures around, Nikola was.

But eliminating her slaves would only cause Jade to make more. Her own bite or those of the smaller snakes they carried could envenom anyone and turn them into her servants. Right now the other monks with them were just food and potential replacements for Jade's servants. So step one was to limit her resources.

When they stopped for a break, Nikola got out of the wagon and went to find Masra. He took the head man by the arm and led him away from the wagons, just saying, "Let's take a little walk and talk a bit, shall we?"

Nikola couldn't get him very far away, but at least he was far enough from Jade to lessen her influence.

"Masra, I've been thinking. We're taking an awfully long time to get to Balasaam this way, and staying in one big group puts everyone in danger from the murderers. Why don't we split up, a small group with each wagon to go directly to Balasaam, and everyone else just go about their business? That way you limit how many people are in danger since the murderers will likely stick together, and you get rid of us faster." Jade didn't fight him on the idea, she wanted to move more quickly as well, and being in a smaller group would not harm her, as long as there were enough monks for food for the shorter period of time.

Nikola could see the monk thinking about it; he had one more thing he had to try to say, though he was sure Jade wouldn't like it.

"Have you noticed the two little doors in the sides . . ." Jade cut him off. Nikola struggled for a moment to complete his sentence, but he couldn't. Well, maybe he'd said enough.

Masra said, "Perhaps your idea to split up is good. But I do not understand about the doors. What doors?"

Nikola just shook his head. Jade was calling him back to the wagon, and he went.


	24. Chapter 24

The night was calm and quiet, since Jade had fed the night before. In the morning, the monks held a meeting of some kind, and after breakfast most of them split off from the wagons.

Masra came to their wagon and said, "I have decided that we will split into two groups. We are away from any villages now, and we can do the most good if we go back into populated areas with our message, while the wagons go on directly to your caves. And that way we will narrow down the suspects in the murders as well as the number of potential victims."

Nikola got down out of the wagon, stretched, and said, "If we're not likely to be seen, then I think I'll walk for a while."

Helen gave him a puzzled look. Nikola never exercised for the sake of exercise, lounging with a glass of wine was more his style. "Now what's got into you?" she asked.

"I just feel like walking instead of sitting in the wagon."

"Right. Perhaps I should walk with you."

"No, you need to rest. You're still healing your arm, and I fed from you yesterday."

"So you are planning something. Ready to tell me yet or is it just going to be a surprise?"

Nikola just shook his head. "I can't talk about it, I already told you that."

"Surprise, then. Nikola, I really hope that it's a pleasant one, I really do."

He just shook his head again and walked up to where the monks were starting to lead the yak pulling the yeti's wagon off on their new route. Helen got back in her wagon, and they began their daily trek.

But today there were no side trips to small groups of houses or villages, just an empty track leading into the forbidding mountains ahead. Nikola walked with the monks in the front of the small caravan and tried out some of his new Tibetan. In return he got looks of bewilderment or the occasional unexpected laugh. But the monks did try to talk to him, speaking slowly and using gestures, and he corrected some of his errors and learned a few new words.

When he'd changed his routine, Jade had been interested and paid close attention to him. But as the hours wore on, he felt her attention wander until she was completely ignoring him, perhaps even sleeping.

He kept near the front of the procession, but lagged back until he was just behind the yeti's wagon, walking next to one of Jade's servants. Nikola ignored him and beyond a nod of recognition, was ignored in return.

They walked all morning, climbing steadily along a narrowing rough track. They pulled up in a wider area for a lunch break.

Helen approached him and asked, "Are you enjoying your walk?"

"Oh, yeah, getting lots of fresh air. I guess I'm going to walk all afternoon, too."

"Not ready to tell me what's going on yet?"

Nikola just shook his head. "Well then, you can walk all day and sleep outside tonight as well, since you're suddenly so interested in fresh air," Helen snapped at him, and turned and went back to her wagon.

Nikola sighed. He didn't blame her, he knew he could try her patience when he didn't even mean to, and his current non-communicative state was undoubtedly very irritating. He knew it was irritating him, and he could only imagine how Helen felt. But he had a purpose, and if they were both going to get safely back to the Sanctuary there were things he needed to do.

He got his chance in midafternoon. Jade was drowsing, and her servants and lost all interest in him. They were on a very narrow path, just wide enough for the wagons with two or three feet on either side, a cliff wall on one side and a sheer drop on the other. The drop was on the little door side of the wagons.

Nikola couldn't attack Jade, he knew that. She would become alert if he got anywhere close to her. But she was used to him walking now and he was a little further from her than he had been in the wagon. As soon as she realized what he was doing she could still stop him, but if he acted quickly he might accomplish something.

The other smaller snakes didn't have her awareness or intelligence. He walked up next to the yetis wagon, out of sight of everyone anywhere near him. He kept his surface mind blank as he opened the door, and with one swipe grabbed two snakes and swept them out and over the cliff. There was at least on more in there, but too far back for him to reach.

He felt Jade snap awake. The servant monk behind him screamed in rage and rushed toward the cliff edge, too late to save his mistress's offspring that were still falling. He ran right to the edge of the cliff and Nikola hardly had to touch him to send him over as well.

The vampire yelled, "Help, someone's fallen!"

Pain lanced through his head; Jade realized her loss and was furious. She wanted him to go over the cliff too, in payment for his destruction of her servant and her young. She was pressuring him, and he dropped to his knees holding his head rather than walk forward. Other monks quickly arrived, both those slaved to Jade and those not. The little door in the side of the wagon still hung open, and as soon as the monks arrived, he started to point at it while holding on to his head with his other hand, but Jade stopped him. One of her servants quickly closed it, but others had seen it open as well.

Jade wanted Nikola to die to pay for what he had done. He tried to remind her she needed him to work the controller for her. The snake triumphantly replied that Helen could do it now, but Nikola explained that if something went wrong, if it was damaged or didn't work right, only he could fix it, and she had no control over Helen.

Jade was frustrated; she couldn't kill him and be sure she could achieve her goal of getting to a more populated place, at least not yet. In her fury she sent wave after wave of pain until he blacked out.

Helen arrived as Nikola completely collapsed, and quickly grabbed him and made sure he didn't accidently fall over the cliff. Masra was there, and all the monks were babbling at him, trying to tell him what happened or find out what happened.

She got a couple of them to help her with Nikola, carrying him back to the wagon and depositing him on the cot. Jade was pleased he was so close, she would keep him close to her from now on so she could keep him under her complete control. Unconscious was good, he could do no harm; he only needed to wake when they reached the caves.

What was wrong with Nikola? Helen examined him, trying to figure out why he collapsed. Heat stroke? It wasn't hot, and Nikola could withstand temperature extremes easily. Spending the day walking surely wouldn't hurt him, and while he hadn't eaten much lately he had fed at least a little the day before.

Was he ill? What kind of sickness could he get that his body wouldn't automatically heal? Helen was stumped. He looked fine if a little pale, and she could find no sign of injury.

There was another spate of excitement outside, but she ignored it to stay with Nikola. Whatever it was, if it concerned either of them, someone would come and tell her.

Eventually Masra came to the wagon, knocked politely, and said, "Excuse me, I would like Mr. Tesla to tell me what happened. Everyone has a thought, but no one seems to know, and one of my people fell to his death. Also, snakes were discovered in the hay compartment of the other wagon. They have been destroyed, and you have no need to worry, the compartment of your wagon was checked and no creatures were found."

"Mr. Tesla is unconscious, Masra, and I don't know why. Perhaps he is ill, I can find no sign of injury. Can you tell me what you know about what happened?"

"Of course. Mr. Tesla was walking alongside the yeti's wagon, a very dangerous thing to do with the track so narrow here. Suddenly, Pom screamed and ran to that side of the wagon as well, and fell over the edge. No one was in a position to see what happened on the side of the wagon, the yetis were not paying attention and no one else was so close to the edge as to be able to see that exact spot. Then, when others reached Mr. Tesla he seemed to be in great pain and collapsed. The small door in the side of the wagon was open, and people looked in and found two large gray snakes. They were fetched out with a walking stick and tossed over the cliff. Perhaps your friend was bitten by a snake?"

"I don't think so, but I'll check again. You say your man screamed before he started running? Why would he if he couldn't see what was happening alongside of the wagon?"

"I do not know. Maybe he saw Mr. Tesla a little bit, very near the edge, about to go over and he tried to warn him. Mr. Tesla must have opened the small door in the wagon and found the snakes. Perhaps he recoiled from them, yes, that would explain much."

Helen just nodded and said nothing. Masra was coming up with a reasonable explanation on his own, she wasn't about to throw doubt on his scenario. But she knew Nikola wouldn't have recoiled from snakes, he would have vamped and attacked them. She also knew how quick his reflexes were- why hadn't he grabbed the monk and saved him? It was troubling to think Nikola had let the man fall on purpose, but perhaps he had been incapacitated by then. But by what?

Masra left, having convinced himself that what happened had been an accident caused by snakes getting into the wagon somehow. Helen kept an open mind- there was more going on here than appeared on the surface, she just didn't know what.

Helen called Nikola's name several times and shook him a little, but he didn't wake. This was so similar to what had happened when he had been bitten by the snake in the cavern, she went over him again, looking again for a snake bite, but still didn't find anything. Perhaps he had been bitten, and his vampire physiology had healed the bite, but he still had the venom in his system. It was possible, and the fact that Masra said the snakes were gray like the one that had knocked Nikola out before convinced her.

So there was nothing she could do for him except keep him as comfortable as she could and wait for him to wake up.

Jade was a little afraid. She only had four servants left, plus the one that had rebelled against her and was so hard to control. But without her children, how could she make more? Her own venom would work, but she was so big and obvious it wasn't as if she could just bite someone and slither away into a crevice. At night, when her servants came to her and they hunted, perhaps she could inject her venom into someone then, but it would have to be after they had fed otherwise her servants would try to drain the one she had bitten to appease their own hunger for blood.

And she didn't have immediate control over the bitten one. It took time for her venom to spread, to reach the brain and let her take control. In that time the person could tell what had happened to them, and if they saw her and told anyone, she would be hunted. Jade did not want to be hunted. She was so close now; she had to find a way to make her plan work.

If this had happened back at the monastery she would have been angry, but she had lots of children there, hundreds in fact. Here? She called out to her children to come to her. She received no answers, she was too far from the monastery, but her children were other places too. But she was so far away now, were any of them close enough to come to her? She called again, and again.

A/N: I'm finally done editing my book, The Lady and the Prince, so I should be able to update more often now (at least until I start the next one). If you are interested, the book is coming out June 7 on Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble websites. It's a fantasy novel with romance, magic, sword fighting, and intrigue.


	25. Chapter 25

Helen rode in the wagon with Nikola the rest of the day. She noticed that occasionally his hand twitched, and once he moaned and moved his head a little. The little wrinkle between his brows appeared and smoothed again, and she began to think his condition had nothing to do with being bitten by a snake.

In late afternoon he suddenly half-vamped, his fangs and claws protruding slightly and then retracting again. That convinced her. Whatever was going on with him, he was fighting it. Somehow his condition had to be connected with the secret he was keeping from her.

She tried to rouse him completely, but failed. It occurred to her that without Nikola available to protect her, she was vulnerable to whatever had been murdering the monks. Helen searched the wagon then herself, looking for some way to protect herself with one good arm. Eventually she found a large piece of leather that had had bits taken off here and there for whatever needs the monks had, and cut pieces off of it for herself with some difficulty.

But finally she had a roundish piece with a drawstring she could use for a pouch, and another long strip for a sling. She hadn't used one in decades, but she was grateful to her father for teaching her the use of many weapons, some quite primitive. When they finally stopped for the night, the first thing she did was gather small, heavy stones and fill her pouch with her ammunition.

Helen considered practicing a bit in private, but then decided that letting the monks see what she could do with her weapon could possibly prevent an attack on her, much preferable to actually having to try to defend herself. She stood in front of a cliff face and let fly a few times, creating a loud "crack!" with every shot that definitely got attention. Firing at the cliff, she aimed at certain spots which she didn't always hit, but no one else could tell when she missed since she was the only one who knew what she had aimed at. When she was finished, she replaced the stones she had used and went to get her nightly food ration.

Masra approached her and asked politely, "How is Mr. Tesla? Is he recovering?"

She replied, "No, but he's no worse." Helen wondered if the monk could be trusted. Could any of them be trusted? Surely the ones who had been killed were not in on what was going on, whatever it was, so some of them were innocent, but which ones?

With the fang marks and blood drain, there had to be at least one Abnormal involved, but the only unusual creatures she had seen were the yetis and they had both the wrong kind of diet and the wrong kind of teeth. Was there something hiding in plain sight, disguised as a monk? Or was the Abnormal able to conceal itself somehow, perhaps turn invisible?

Helen debated with herself whether to seal herself in the wagon with Nikola, or go out into the night and try to find whatever it was. Normally she wouldn't have thought twice, going after Abnormals was what she did, but Nikola was currently unable to defend himself and she hesitated to leave him alone. Still, whatever it was, he had likely already encountered it and suffered no noticeable injury, although a conscious vampire was a different thing than an unconscious one.

If she simply stayed in the wagon night after night they would both be safe, but what would happen when they reached Balasaam? They weren't that far away from it now, and would probably arrive in the next couple of days. Perhaps nothing, except she would lose the chance to find out what was going on and stop further killings, both good reasons to go hunting.

But she needed to be cautious. Nikola had been very protective of her during their journey so far, so he apparently thought that whatever it was was more than the two of them could handle. But perhaps he had been uncertain about that, and that was why he refused to tell her what he knew, so she would have no choice but to trust his judgment. That way he would be sure she was safe, and she couldn't argue the point with him since she had no information.

Helen thought her reasoning was sound, but with no concrete information she could be way off the mark. The only way to fix that was to go see what she could see. She decided to stay in the area of the camp for safety and to be sure no one tried to hurt Nikola, but stay awake all night and watch, perhaps even patrol a bit.

She tied a group of small pots to the handle of the wagon door when she went out, hoping they would act as a signal if someone tried to enter. Twirling her sling a couple of times, she went for a walk around the camp.

The monks were settling down to sleep. Three sat up together, watching as well. Helen hadn't paid much attention before, but now she counted the monks accompanying her. Eight sleeping, three watching, so eleven in total. She would count them now and then to see if any went off by themselves for any appreciable length of time, or if they suddenly became twelve.

Walking around the wagons, Helen could hear a faint intermittent rumble from the yeti's wagon- apparently one of them snored. She found a rock to sit on a little distance away from the dying fire where she wouldn't be easily seen from the camp. Then she went still and waited.

Hours passed. The three monks on watch changed places with three others who were joined by a fourth. The four walked around in a circuit about the camp as if they were patrolling. But when they went behind the wagons, they didn't reappear very quickly and Helen became more alert. What were they doing back there? That wasn't where the latrine was, so . . .

Nikola had been dimly aware during the day. He knew Helen was with him by her scent, he could feel the motion of the wagon and the relative softness of the cot beneath him. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite shake off Jade's hold on him. She was just too close.

When night fell he could sense her becoming more active, a little impatient for her servants to come to her and assist her out of the wagon. And Helen was no longer with him, where had she gone? He knew her well enough to be alarmed at her absence. Whatever she was doing, if she was out at night it was undoubtedly very unsafe.

He could hear a faint rustling sound from outside the wagon, and felt Jade's excitement at finally leaving her concealment, and the collective hunger from her and her servants. He was hungry too, and she allowed him to wake up to come to her. She was used to having five servants to carry her, and Nikola would be given the privilege of being one of them.

He rose stiffly, stretched and shook himself a little, and opened the wagon door. The clanging of the pots startled him for a moment, but then he grinned. Helen's work, no doubt. But the smile quickly left his face. She would be coming, and then what? Nikola knew which side he wanted to be on, but he wasn't sure which side he _would_ be on if there was a confrontation and Jade tried to force him to do something terrible.

Jade made him hurry to her and her group. Nikola didn't fight her; if he was with them perhaps he could stop them from killing someone. He took up a position at her tail, which she firmly wrapped around him.

And then Helen's voice came loudly out of the darkness. "Stop right there! What are you all doing?"

The monks with Jade surged forward, their fangs bared. They were only shadowy forms to Helen, but she could see enough to sling stones. She knew Nikola was in the group somewhere, she had seen him leaving the wagon when the pots alerted her, but she didn't worry about him; he could readily heal any damage a stone could do.

One monk cried out when he was struck with a solid "smack", another was hit in the head and staggered, and Jade herself was struck in her long body. While she was distracted, Nikola unwound her tail and freed himself, vamped, and raked her with his claws as he stepped away. She struck at him in retaliation, but missed when one of her servants dropped her and leapt at Helen.

The monk coming at her was too close to sling a stone at, but Helen had one loaded and just hit him in the face with it, sling and all. He staggered back and fell. Jade and the rest of her servants faded back into the darkness.

The entire camp was awake now, the other monks calling and running toward the commotion. Two or three of them brought brands from the fire so there was suddenly light.

Helen stood triumphant with the one servant monk at her feet. He started to get up, his mouth open and fangs still extended to attack her, but Masra and another monk grabbed him from behind. The monks were horrified to see their friend with snake fangs protruding from his mouth, and had no idea what to do next.

But Helen did. "Masra, this man is one of those who has been killing your people and drinking their blood. It's not really his fault, he's been altered and I'm sure it was against his will, but he is extremely dangerous. He must be restrained and taken back to the monastery."

Nikola's voice came from the darkness. "Anyone who is bitten by one of those gray snakes must be watched carefully, it's their venom that can cause this." He strolled into the light, his vampire characteristics retracted while the monks took Jade's servant to the fire to tie him up.

Nikola added, "Although without Mommy snake around, the results may be different. Masra, all your people should stay together tonight. Your three missing monks are like your friend there, and are being controlled by a very large snake. All of them are now blood drinkers, literally with the morals of a snake."

"Are you all right?" Helen asked.

"Better than I have been in a while. We need to have a chat. Cool sling, by the way."

She gave him a nod of agreement and they went to their wagon. Nikola checked the compartment under the floor, but there was nothing in it except a little hay. Inside, he explained what had happened to him and Jade's limited ability to control him.

"So she could take you over again?" Helen asked.

"Possibly, if she's close enough. Right now, she's not. I can still sense her a little bit, just enough to know she's really pissed off. She's lost her nice, comfortable bedding and she's down to three servants, plus me when she's close enough and concentrates hard enough. But I'm a very willful fellow, you know."

"Hmm, yes, I do. What do you think Jade will do? Try to rescue her other servant and go back to the monastery?"

"Possibly, but I doubt it. Her servants don't mean anything to her, she can make more with her venom or the venom from her children that take after her. What she really wants is to get to a more populated area, one where she can have lots of children and servants and live openly in complete control."

"The snakes in the other wagon, they were her children?"

"Yeah, and also her potential breeding partners. What she really wants is a male snake that's bigger and more intelligent like her, although may not quite as smart as she is so she would still be in charge."

"And the blood drinking is part of her mutation?"

"Yep. I guess whether she goes on to Balasaam and tries to get to the gate or returns to the monastery is going to depend on whether or not she can come up with a male to take with her to the Sanctuary. She wouldn't want to go alone with no way to make more children."

"Except there's Herman, he's both large and intelligent."

"Believe me, I did my best not to think about him around her. Besides, he doesn't bite people or drink blood, and I think he's smarter than she is."

"I wonder if he'd be interested? He is quite lonely."

"Helen, do not play snake matchmaker, please. Jade's ability to influence me is quite unpleasant, and I do not want her living anywhere near me."

Helen smiled and gave him a light kiss. "I agree; you've been very difficult to live with while she was around. But it wouldn't hurt to ask Herman if he would be interested in moving to Tibet, would it?"

"If she goes back to the monastery, maybe he could convince her to drink from animals and stop murdering and enslaving people. But if she tries to go through the gate, we have to stop her. If she gets through there are all those caves and tunnels around the Sanctuary and the next thing we know we'll have an army of snakes and slaves attacking us."

"Yes, her lack of morals could be a problem wherever she is. It's late, Nikola, we should get some sleep."

"Helen? There is one more factor to consider. If Jade dies or is separated from her servants, those men could have their lives back, although that wouldn't affect the changes in their DNA."

"But they would have a choice. Like you, they could choose to take animal blood, to live peaceful if changed lives."

"I believe so, yes."

"Then that's what we'll aim for, somehow."

"I know you want to help Jade too, Helen, but sometimes we can't save every Abnormal."

"No, but we can try," Helen said firmly. "She's a natural mutation, isn't she?"

"As far as I know. But natural doesn't necessarily mean good."

"In spite of what she's done, we have to give her a chance. Humans have always been her enemies, she's never been taught any differently."

"Helen, if she shows up at Balasaam, we can't let her through the gate."

"Agreed, but we can talk to her. You can communicate with her, can't you?"

"Yes, but if she's that close, she could start controlling me again."

"We'll stick together, but just in case the duress word will be Gregory, all right?"

Nikola sighed. That was Helen Magnus, always trying to save everyone, although he had to admit that was part of why he loved her. "Fine, Helen. Now can we get some sleep?"

"Good night, Nikola."

A/N: JBB, thanks for the review!


	26. Chapter 26

The next two days they traveled with no sign of Jade. At midday, as they approached one of the hidden back entrances to Balasaam, Helen could tell the yetis were getting excited and she was a little excited herself at the thought of being back at the Sanctuary with Danny again.

Nikola, on the other hand, became quieter. He had been sitting up nights and catnapping during the day. He was afraid if he slept at night when Jade was more active and could sneak in closer to camp, he would be vulnerable to her taking him over and controlling him.

But when they reached the entrance to Balasaam, they found it had been badly damaged long ago.

Nikola explained, "It looks like we can at least get in, I was afraid it might have been completely blocked and we would have a long trip to the next entrance."

Helen examined the hole in the side of a cliff that was almost full of debris. "What happened here? This looks like it could have been caused by an explosion."

"When Balasaam was attacked by a consortium of human nations, this entrance was discovered and used by the Russians, at least so I've read. Apparently their puny attempt at a sneak assault went wrong for them, and they blew it on the way out to try to trap all the vampires within. They were trying to commit genocide, you know."

"Yes, I know, Nikola. Apparently they weren't entirely successful since it appears there's a path of sorts up the mound of debris and enough space at the top to get through."

"Yeah, my ancestors didn't go easily, they fought all the way, and it wasn't too hard for them to shift a few boulders with their superior strength and reopen this as an escape hatch. Unfortunately, the Russians laid an ambush for them up this gorge. According to the records, a few vampires managed to escape this way but most were killed by deliberate rockslides and massed weaponry."

"Can we get the controller through there?"

"Sure, I can carry it through; it's not too heavy, just bulky."

"How far is it from here to the gate, do you know?"

"I never got this far in my explorations, so I'm not positive, but I would estimate a one to two day walk if we don't run into anything unusual."

Helen went over to where Masra was conversing with Koden and Tanka, who were both preparing backpacks for themselves.

"Masra? Obviously the wagons cannot take us any further, so I wanted to thank you for your assistance, and please extend my gratitude to Dge-Bzang Ras-Pa as well. Are the backpacks in our wagon for us to take with us?"

Masra said, "Yes, certainly. Please pack whatever supplies you wish. Is your companion safe to travel with? He has not fed in some days."

"Nikola will be fine, an erratic feeding schedule isn't anything new for him. Will you and your party be alright until you reach a more civilized area?"

"We will be fine, this is our land too, and we are familiar with it. I worry about the snake and our missing companions, but we will be on the watch now and we can now identify which of us have been affected by the venom. We will travel quickly."

Helen returned to the wagon and found Nikola busy packing a knapsack for himself. She packed mostly food and medical supplies, along with lightweight rope that she hoped would not be needed. With only one good arm, climbing would be difficult and dangerous.

They had one last meal with the monks before they parted ways. Afterward Nikola motioned her over to the mound of rubble and pointed at some rocks. In most of the area the rocks appeared to have been in place for many years, but as he pointed she noticed a few that looked like they had been recently disturbed, turned or moved from where they had been embedded in the dirt.

"Jade?" she asked quietly.

"I would think so, no one lives within fifty miles of this place and there's nothing else around here to attract anyone."

"I'd best see we have a good supply of torches." Helen went to finish her packing, and gather a few more stones for ammunition, just in case.

When all was ready, the yetis hung back and waited for Helen and Nikola to lead. Carrying the controller, Nikola wouldn't be able to respond quickly to an attack, so he reluctantly kept his mouth shut when Helen said, "Right," and carefully went first up the pile of rubble.

There was about a meter's clearance between the rubble and the roof of the cave. She ducked through and half walked and half slid down the far side. Nikola came next with the controller, and then the yetis. At the bottom they all stopped to light torches and look around.

There wasn't much to see except some internal damage from the long-ago explosion. Neither Nikola nor Helen could easily carry a torch, so it was up to the yetis to provide the light. Helen gestured Koden to walk in front with her, and Tanka came up the rear, both carrying lit torches.

There was rubble they had to step carefully through near the entrance, and a couple of small empty rooms. But as they moved further from the site of the damage, walking became quite easy. The floor was smooth, the tunnel was at least three meters wide and nearly as high, and there was nothing else, no rooms and no side tunnels for the first hour of walking.

Then they reached a cross tunnel. There were markings on the wall in vampiric hieroglyphics, and Helen stopped to read them.

"Queen's court to the left, king's court to the right, and straight ahead . . . non-personal space? Any idea if your gate is in the queen's or king's area?"

"Not a clue, unfortunately, but probably neither, it's farther on. Most of the areas down here aren't labelled, but there are very likely connecting corridors anyway."

"Straight ahead it is, then."

But twenty minutes later they stopped, faced with a complete blockage of the corridor. They turned around and went back to the intersection.

"Anyone have any preferences in direction?"

Tanka said softly, "Yes, please. That way, what you called the queen's court, it smells of people and snake. May we go the other way?"

Helen smiled appreciatively at Tanka's contribution. "Absolutely. And whenever you smell those people or snake scents please tell us so we can avoid them."

Tanka nodded and gave the equivalent of a yeti smile back, and they turned up the corridor marked king's court and continued their walk. They began passing more rooms and branching corridors, but since Nikola didn't recognize any of it, Helen kept choosing their direction mostly at random.

Eventually he said, "Bear left, I think. We're in an outer area here, and we need to cross the center space to get closer to the valley where the city was located and the area where your father set up the tests."

They trudged on for several hours until Helen called a halt. They moved into a room to eat and rest. After she and the yetis had eaten, she noticed Nikola seemed preoccupied and went over and sat next to him.

"How much farther do you think it is to the gate?" she asked.

"I don't know, a few hours maybe. Helen, I think Jade is close." Nikola looked a little embarrassed. "I'm afraid she might have gotten a thought from me about the yetis, and she knows they can scent her presence. Sorry."

She nodded her acceptance; it was done, nothing could change it. "Can you communicate with her?"

"Maybe, but I don't think she's close enough for anything complicated."

"Would she meet with us?"

"You want to come face to face with her and her servants?"

"I think we need to, Nikola. If Jade would be willing to give up killing people and enslaving them . . ."

"Very unlikely."

"I need to talk to her."

"But not in here where we would be trapped; that open area we just passed?"

"That would do."

Nikola sat silently for a few minutes, and Helen could see he was concentrating. Then he said, "Okay, she's coming."

The four of them left their belongings and the controller in the room, Helen just taking her sling and ammunition and the yetis carrying torches. They went out into a nearby large cavern and waited. After a few minutes, Jade and her servants emerged from a dark side tunnel.

Nikola vamped and hung back; he did not want to get close unless he had to. In the light, he could see one of the servants had a second much smaller gray snake looped loosely around his neck, and a third gray snake was partly on Jade and partly on another servant. This one was much larger than any he had seen before besides Jade herself, being nearly a quarter of her prodigious length.

The servant that carried Jade's head moved a step forward and said, "I speak for Jade. What do you wish to say to her?"

Helen said, "Jade, I understand you want to come to the Sanctuary. This may be possible under certain conditions."

Jade raised her head slightly, obviously interested. "What are your conditions?" the servant asked.

"First, you may not attack or kill anyone or anything. Animal blood can be provided for you."

"No, I and my servants need human blood. Animal blood tastes bad."

"Willing donors can provide blood if necessary."

"It has to be fresh and warm. We could drink from them?"

"No, not directly. They would donate the blood, it would be preserved and reheated for your consumption."

Jade looked intently at Nikola. Her servant said, "Not as good. This one knows. What else?"

"You must free your servants to live their own lives and never make any more."

"No! Then I must crawl on my belly on the ground and cannot speak! I need my slaves, I need many more slaves, and they are happy to serve me." The three monks carrying her gave fake smiles and all nodded in unison.

"That is the only way you would be allowed to live at the Sanctuary, Jade," Helen said. "There is another large serpent there, a male, also intelligent. But he would not want to associate with anyone who kills and enslaves people."

Jade's servant said nothing for a few moments, while she stared again at Nikola. "Tesla says this is true, but the serpent is not exactly like me, only similar. Still . . . but I could not give up my servants, and there is no reason not to take whatever blood I choose. I am Jade, I am strong, stronger than mere humans. I will be their queen, it's only right."

Nikola suddenly lunged forward and pulled Helen back from where she had stepped ahead to speak to Jade. A split second later the middle-sized snake struck at where she had been, but missed Helen by a wide margin. It continued on down to the floor and slithered forward aggressively.

Koden swung his torch at it, and it quickly swerved aside and back to Jade and her servants, who were retreating into the darkness. Nikola and Helen got the yetis moving to the room that held their belongings, gathered everything up and moved at a trot down the corridor away from the meeting cavern.

As they went, Helen asked, "Nikola, once the gate is up and tuned, can you bring the controller with us so it can't be used from this side?"

"It's bulky, if we have to move fast or I need my hands free I'd rather just rip out a couple of key components. Once we're back home I can send a magnetic pulse and set off the alarm system which should call the cavalry and we can use a real controller to come back to take care of Jade and her buddies."

Helen just nodded, saving her breath for traveling. But the yetis were breathing heavily and slowing down. They weren't built for speed. The group slowed so they could stay together.

Nikola said, "I know where we are, I recognize this place. Turn right up ahead."

They moved at a fast walk, the vampire directing their path. Tanka said, "Oh, I smell that people and snake smell again, from ahead."

Helen asked Nikola, "Can we go around?"

"No, we're close, and I don't think she'll attack until we've opened the gate. Wait." Nikola stopped and the rest stopped too.

"Koden, Tanka, this is very important," he said. "Do not go through the gate when we turn it on; not until Helen or I tell you to. No matter what is happening, wait for our signal. Do you understand?"

Both yetis looked confused, but nodded. Helen and Nikola exchanged a look. They moved forward and Helen recognized where they were too, and then they arrived at the gate.

Tanka whimpered a little. "I smell them," she said very softly. Helen had her sling ready. Nikola put down the cot with the controller on it and said, "Wolf boy didn't rewire. I'll have to hook it up to the geomagnetic power."

He unrolled the extra wire, carefully took it down a corridor and hooked it up. Then he came back and engaged the electrical step down function on the controller. He looked at Helen who nodded.

Nikola flipped the switch on the controller, and the gate turned on.


	27. Chapter 27

Will had taken over as many of Helen Magnus's duties as he could, but he was falling behind and he knew it. The former heads of Sanctuary houses had started complaining and talking about a permanent replacement for their missing leader. They still constituted a council of sorts, and many had established and were running other underground Sanctuary locations. Nearly all considered themselves more capable than Will of running the entire network.

He couldn't dispute that, he had the least experience of any of them, but he could delay them taking any action for a while yet. Magnus would be back; he insisted she would at every conference when the subject arose.

But he was beginning to think privately she might not. The delay in her reappearance made him extremely uneasy. If she had shot Tesla and they both went through the gate, what would have happened on the other side? Had he lashed out at her? If he was confused, not remembering their relationship, and hurt by the bullets, he might have attacked her. Helen was tough and capable of defending herself, but maybe not against a crazed vampire. If Helen was all right, she surely would have been in contact by now.

Every day Will scanned all the Sanctuary operative reports looking for anything that might indicate she was trying to get in touch, and every day he was disappointed. As he finished today's scan, Henry came into his office.

The HAP was looking tired. He and Erica had put in long hours reconstructing things the confused Serbian had taken apart, plus they were looking after two very young children.

Henry just said, "Hey, how's it going?"

Will understood he was really asking if there was any sign of Helen; Henry found an excuse to stop by every day, just in case there was anything in the reports he could help follow up on. Will replied, "You know, same-o, same-o." _No sign of her._

"We've got everything back together except some of Drac's experiments. I don't even know what they were supposed to be, I'm not going to mess with them. How's your phone?"

Will picked up his new cellphone. Henry had done everything he could to retrieve the data from what was left of the old one, but he'd only been able to find and transfer a quarter of the information from the damaged one.

"Good," Will said; no point in making Henry feel bad, it wasn't his fault Nikola got hold of Will's old phone and disassembled it. Besides, Will had been able to rebuild most of the data. "It works great, has more features than my old one."

Henry nodded, and they endured an awkward silence. Then Henry said, "Do you think the Doc is ever coming back?"

"I don't know. I hope so, and soon, before I get killed by a pile of paper falling on me."

Henry sat down. "We need a plan. What if it's months before the Doc comes back, or years? Am I supposed to just keep taking care of Danny? It's not that I mind, but legally isn't he supposed to have a guardian or something? And what do we do if Nikola comes back without her? Is he still one of the good guys? I mean, he didn't know who he was or what he was, what if he . . ." Henry couldn't finish the sentence.

Will sat back in his chair and scrubbed his face with his hands. He was overworked and tired, and he didn't know what to say. The same questions kept circling through his head too, and he didn't have any answers. There just wasn't enough information.

Henry said, "I don't think they gated to any other gate, there was no sign of them at any of them. If the gate wasn't tuned, then they could have gone anywhere, like into solid rock or the bottom of the ocean and we might never see them again."

"Yeah, I know, I've thought of that too. But it's only been a few weeks. If there's any chance at all, Helen Magnus will be back, you know that."

"I know, I'm just tired. But how long do we wait?"

Will sighed. "As long as it takes. With Helen that could be another hundred and thirteen years, you know?"

"So another month?"

"Sounds about right."

"And if that wine-drinking addled vampire shows up without her, we squeeze him until he tells us everything he knows."

"Yeah, but unfortunately that might be nothing at all."

/

Silently, on bare feet, Jade's three servants exploded from the darkness. One threw himself at Helen, two leapt at Nikola. None of them paid the least attention to the yetis, who backed up waving their torches to keep the fanged monks away.

Helen didn't have time to use her sling, so she used her fist on the point of the monk's chin. He fell to the floor, but didn't stay down. He rose and advanced more cautiously. She grabbed her ammo pouch and swung it like a blackjack.

Nikola's two attackers kept trying to bite him. He kept them at arm's length with his claws, but one circled behind him so he couldn't watch both at once. Koden tried to help by swinging his torch at the monk behind the vampire, but had it swatted out of his hands.

Jade slithered out of the darkness and paused a moment to watch the battle. She headed toward the gate, followed by her two consorts.

Nikola charged forward, knocking the monk in front of him aside. The one behind him jumped on his back, holding one with one arm around his neck and the other pinioning his left arm, and sunk his fangs into the top of Nikola's shoulder. Tesla ignored him and grabbed the smallest snake and decapitated it with his other hand. Jade speeded up, but the middle-sized snake turned back and attacked Nikola too.

The monk that had been knocked aside leapt on the vampire as well, overbalancing him and making him stumble into the snake, and fall on top of it. The snake, two monks, and Nikola writhed on the floor in a mad ball of fangs and claws.

Helen had hit the monk trying to bite her two glancing blows with her ammo bag when she landed a hit squarely on his temple and knocked him out. She saw Nikola struggling on the floor and Jade disappearing through the gate.

Helen wanted badly to help Nikola, but she did what she had to first. She ran to the controller and flipped the switch to turn the gate off. Jade was mostly through; just the tip of her tail was amputated to wiggle by itself for a few seconds, and then lie still.

Koden had retrieved his torch, and hovered near the fight, not sure what to do. The mid-sized snake's tail came near Tanka, and she grabbed it and held on, distracting the creature and limiting its movement.

The monk with its fangs in Nikola's shoulder was dead, Nikola had penetrated his skull with his claws. But the fangs were still embedded, and the corpse remained attached. The second monk had bitten the inside of Nikola's thigh, his fangs penetrating the muscle to the artery; Helen could see his throat moving as he drank the vampire's blood. Nikola's free hand was holding the snake's neck just behind the head, keeping it away so he wouldn't be bitten and envenomed.

"Nikola!" she called as she knelt next to the snake and whirled her ammo bag once. Nikola understood, and pushed the snake's head down firmly on the stone floor. Helen struck it as hard as she could, once, twice, three times, and the creature's head was crushed.

With his hand now free, Tesla grabbed the living monk's nose and used it to pry him off of his leg.

"Koden, Tanka!" Helen called. "Make sure this one doesn't escape." The Yetis moved in and stood over the monk. Seeing himself now outnumbered four to one, he stayed still on the ground, just licking the last of Nikola's blood off his lips.

Helen turned to Nikola and helped him detach the dead monk. Nikola made no attempt to get up; he just lay back on the floor.

"Nikola? Are you all right?"

He raised his hand a few inches and waved once at her. Helen went to check on the monk she had hit. She was somewhat dismayed to find him dead, his skull shattered where she had struck him. But he certainly would have killed her if he'd had the chance, so she didn't feel too bad about it. She went back to her vampire.

Nikola slowly sat up. "Wow. Those guys really suck."

"I suppose."

"No, I mean they drank a lot of blood in a short time. I'm pretty weak and getting hungry. Can we go home now?"

"What do we do with the surviving monk?"

"We can't exactly call up the monastery and tell them to come and get him."

"No, we can't, and he shouldn't be wandering around loose attacking people for blood, either. I guess we'll have to take him home with us and retrain him, Nikola."

"Seriously?"

"What else can we do with him? Once we have him on animal blood, we can send him home the long way."

"Fine, whatever. Do you want to operate the controller or do you want me to?"

Since he hadn't made any attempt to stand up, she said, "I'll do it." Helen went to the large device and switched the gate on. Then she did what she hadn't done the first time, and threw the second switch to tune it to the Sanctuary gate. She went back to Nikola and held out her good hand, helping him up.

Nikola looked at the gate critically and said, "Hey, I got it right by ear. We're connected, first try."

Helen gave him a smile and said, "Excellent, Nikola. I'm sure no one else could have done it." After all they had been through he deserved a little ego stroking. He grinned widely at her praise.

They went through the gate, Helen first, then the monk with Nikola right behind holding on to him firmly, with the yetis following.

Emerging into the Sanctuary gate room was a relief. Nikola didn't even have to send an electromagnetic pulse to sound the alarm and bring everyone running; the torches set off the fire alarm.

Henry and Will arrived together, gaping at the collection of people in front of them. They were both happy to see Helen Magnus back, even with one arm in a sling. Tesla was bloody and bedraggled, and was holding on to a small Asian man with snake fangs, but at least he recognized them. They eyed the two mounds of white fur warily, but the creatures didn't seem hostile and neither Helen nor Nikola showed any concern about them.

Helen first went to the infirmary and x-rayed her arm. She found it was knitting nicely, so she changed the dressing and went to reclaim her son. Nikola deposited the monk in one of the containment cells, cleaned up and dressed properly, then went to find a couple of bottles of mediocre wine; he would be mixing it with blood and chugging it for a while, he didn't want to waste the good stuff. Then he took Danny from Helen so she could clean up and have a decent meal. Biggie took charge of the yetis, who dragged him around the compound while they explored their new home.

The Sanctuary gradually returned to normal, at least as normal as it ever was.

/

Jade found herself in darkness, her tail stinging from the amputation. She was hurt, angry and confused; this wasn't what she had seen in the vampire's mind, what had gone wrong? She slithered around cautiously in the rocks and soon found a wall, then another. She circled, checking high and low for a way out, but found only tiny cracks here and there. She tried forcing them wider with no success. It became harder and harder to breathe. Eventually the bubble of space in the rock became still and silent again, as it had been since the earth was born.

A/N: Whew, finally got them home again. I won't be writing any more long Sanctuary stories for a while, but I may do the occasional short stand-alone. My book, The Lady and the Prince is now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble and due for release on 7 June. So it's time for me to go write the sequel, which is a six to eight month project.


End file.
